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AUTHOR: 


WILLIAMS,  SAMUEL 


TITLE: 


HISTORY  OF  MEDIAEVAL 
EDUCATION 

PLACE: 

SYRACUSE 

DA  TE : 

1903 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

■ 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MTrRQFORM  TAunj^j 


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Williams,  Samuel  Gardner,  1S27-] !)()(). 

TJie  liistory  of  mediaeval  education;  an  account  of  the  course 
of  educal.onu    op.n.on  and  practice  fron,  the  sixtli  to  theTf! 

cuho,  A.  1 .,  0.  \\ .  J^ardeen,  1D03.  '^ 

1  p.  I.,  7-11)5  p.  incl.  IIIus.,  plates,  ports.     1S3"-. 


1.  I-^ciiication— Hist. 


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MiCROhlLMtiD  1992 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES/NEW  YORK 


as  part  of  the 
"Foundations  of  Western  Civilization  Preservation  Project" 


Funded  by  the 
NATIONAL  ENDOWMENT  FOR  THE  HUMANITIES 


Reproductions  nia\  not  be  made  without  permission  from 

Columbia  University  Library 


COPYRIGHT  STATEMENT 

The  copyright  law  of  the  United  Stai. ,     Title  17.  United 

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accept  a  copy  order  if,  in  its  judgement,  fulffllment  of  the  order 
would  mvolve  violation  of  the  copyright  law. 


AUTHOR: 


WILLIAMS,  SAMUEL  G. 


TITLE: 


HISTORY  OF  MEDIAEVAL 

EDUCATION 

PLACE: 

SYRACUSE 

DA  TE : 

1903 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


Master  Negative  # 


BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


f 


940.1 
W67 


Restrictioiv   on  Use: 


Williams,  Samuel  Gardner,  1S2T--1900. 

The  history  of  medicTval  education;  an  account  of  the  course 
of  educational  opinion  and  practice  from  the  sixth  to  the  fif- 
teenlli  centuries,  inchisive,  by  Samuel  G.  Williams  ...  ;:Djia- 
cuse,  N.  Y.,  C.  W.  Bardeen,  liJ03. 

1  p,  1.,  7-105  p.  Incl.  ilUis.,  plates,  ports.     18^"". 


1.  I^diication — Hist. 


Library  of  Conf:ross 


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I 


PREFACE 

The  publication  of  this  volume  completes  the  series 
of  lectures  on  the  history  of  education  given  by  Prof. 
Williams  at  Cornell  university,  and  the  first  appear- 
ance in  English  of  histories  of  ancient  and  mediaeval 
education.  Although  issued  after  the  author's  death, 
the  manuscript  was  so  careful  and  matured  and  exact 
that  it  has  been  easy  to  present  his  record  just  as  he 
wrote  it.  In  so  doing  the  publisher  feels  that  he  has 
made  a  distinct  and  needed  addition  to  educational 
literature. 


353342 


H 


HISTORY  OF  lEDlfAL  ED 


AN    A^.^.uLNT   OP   THE 


COURSE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  OPINION  AND  PRACTICE   FROM 
THE  SIXTH  TO  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURIES,  INCLUSIVE 


BY 


SAMUEL  G.  WILLIAMS,  Ph.D. 

ite  Professor  of  the  Science  and  Art  of  Teaching  in  Cornell  University 


SYRACUSE,    N.    Y. 

C.   W.  BARDEEX.    PUBLISHER 


Copyright,  1903.  by  Mr.s.  Florence  W.  Cushin 


CONTE>^TS 


w 


CHAPTER  I 

MOIIAMMKDAN      AND     BYZANTINK     KDrCATION  •  -  Ea  fI  y 

Christian  efforts  for  education-Brilliant  character  of 
Saracen  school,  especially  in  Spain-Cultivation  of 
Greek  learning  in  Constantinople  and  its  barrenness. . 

CHAPTER  II 

Christian  edi cation  to  the  age  of  CnARLEMA(;NE.- 
Humanitarian  ideal  of  education  from  Christ-Early 
Christian  schools-Rejection  of  Greek  and  Roman 
literature  as  heathen-Extincti.»n  of  Roman  schools- 
Text-books  that  were  celebrated  in  the  >Iiddle  Ages 
-Monastic  and  cathedral  schools-Better  education 

in  the  British  Isles 

CHAPTER  III 


PAGES 


17-38 


39-61 


The  revival  of  leaunin<^  in  the  ninth  centtry.- 
Charlemagne  and  his  efforts  for  education-Circular 
to  the  monasteries  and  its  results-Care  for  the  ver- 
nacular-Alcuin  and  his  services-Ralmnus  Maurus 
and  Scotus  Erigena-Alfred  the  Great  and  his  efforts 
for  l)etter  education  in  England 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  relapse  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries, 

AND  THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY  RENAISSANCE  —Chiv- 
alry and  its  effects-Rise  of  municipalities  and  their 
demand  for  education-The  Crusades  and  their  ef- 
fects-Intluence  of  the  Saracenic  schools  in  Spam. . . .  9-^-114 

(9) 


10 


THE    HISTORY    OF    MEDI.tVAL    EDUCATION 


CHAPTER  V 

The  revival  of  learning  in  the  twelfth  century 
and  springing  up  of  the  mediaeval  universities, 
— Causes  of  the  rise  of  the  universities — Constitution 
of  the  early  universities — The  nations — Privileges 
and  their  origin— What  constitntfd  h  university 113-133 

CHAPTER  VI 

Studies,  methods,  and  discipline  of  the  Medi.^val 
UNIVERSITIES. — Arts — Sciences  pursued — Length  of 
courses  and  books  used— Methods,  dictation,  disputa- 
tion, and  lectures  by  bachelors— Inception  and  its 
costs— State  of  morals  and  discipline  in  universities — 
Influences  exerted  by  universities — Changes  in  uni- 
versities wrought  by  printing  134-161 

CHAPTER  VII 

Close  of  the  medleval  period  in  education —State 
of  education  aside  from  the  universities — German  city 
schools — Brotherhood  of  the  common  life— The 
Bacchants — Barbamns  discipline  162-175 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Medijeval  System  of  Education  Summarized 15 

A  Medieval  School 49 

A  School  of  Mendicant  Monks 91 

Initiation  into  the  Order  of  Knighthood 101 

An  Outer  Monastic  School 127 

Lecture  on  Civil  Law 138 

Interior  of  a  Norman  School 147 


PORTRAITS 


PAGE 


Abehird 81 

St.  Ambrose 75 

Aristotle ^9 

Ascham l^'^ 

St.  Augustine 75 

Bacon,  Roger 81 

Bede 81 

St.  Bernard 75 

Charlemagne 65 

Colet 81 

Erasmus 165 

St .  Francis  of  Assisi 75 

St.  Jerome 75 

Leonardo  of  Pisa •  •  81 

Luther 165 

Melanchthon 165 

Petrarch   81 

Platter,  Thomas 165 

Socrates 81 

Sturm 165 

St.  Thomas  Aquinas 75 

(11) 


History  of  Mediceval  Education 


The  cut  on  the  opposite  page  is  taken  from  Cubber- 
ley's  excellent  Syllabus  of  Lectures  on  the  History  of 
Education  (Macmillan  Company,  1902),  which  gives 
the  following  explanation : 

"An  allegorical  reresentation  of  the  progress  and  degrees  of 
education,  from  the  1508  [Bftle]  edition  of  the  Margarita  Philoso- 
phim  of  Gregory  de  Reich,  substantially  the  same  as  in  the  earlier 
editions.      The  youth,  having  mastered  the  Hornbook  and  the 
rudiments  of  learning,  advances  toward  the  temple  of  knowledge 
Wisdom  is  about  to  place  the  key  in  the  lock  of  the  door  of  the 
temple.     Across  the  door  is  written   the  word  rongruntur,—2X[ 
agree.     On  the  first  and  second  fliwrs  of  the  temple  he  studies 
the  Grammar  of  Donatus.  and  of  Priscian,  and  at  the  first  stage 
at  the  left  on  the  third  tloor  he  studies  the  Logic  of  Aristotle 
followed  by  the  Rhetoric  and  Pr>etry  of  Tullv,  thus  completing 
the  Trinum.     The  Arithmetic  of  Boethius  also  appears  on  the 
third  floor.     On  the  fourth  floor  of  the  temple  he  completes  the 
studies  of  the  Quadririum,  taking  in  order  the  Music  of  Pytha- 
goras, Euclid's  Geometry,  and  Ptolemy's  Astronomy.     The  stu- 
dent  now  advances  to  the  study  of  Philosophy,  studying  suc- 
cessively Physics,  Seneca's  Morals,  and  the  Theology  of  Peter 
Lombard,  the  last  being  the  goal   toward   which  all   has  been 
directed." 


(14) 


TRiaiUlVnrPHILOSOPriiEl 


Mi:i»Lt:\  AL  >vs'n:M  oi-  i:i>i  lai  i'>\  ^immaki/ki) 


(15) 


MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION 


CHAPTER  I 


l| 


EARLY    CHRISTIAN,  SARACEN,  AND    BYZANTINE 

EDUCATION 

We  have  seen  that  during  the  imperial  rule  at 
Rome,  there  was  no  lack  of  attention  by  the  better 
classes  to  what  may  be  termed  secondary  and  superior 
education;  that  under  favor  of  some  of  the  wiser 
superiors,  many  large  civil  schools  were  scattered 
widely  over  the  empire,  not  a  few  of  which  attained  a 
reputation  that  has  come  down  to  us  in  at  least  a 
name;  that  in  many  cases  aid  was  granted  to  these 
schools  from  the  imperial  treasury,  and  also,  to  cer- 
tain of  the  high  teachers,  valuable  exemptions  from 
taxes  and  military  service;  and  that  in  these  schools 
were  taught  grammar  including  literature,  philosophy 
including  dialectics,  and  in  some  of  them,  law  and 
medicine.  Such  schools  were  especially  numerous  in 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Roman  Gaul.  The  teachers  were 
either  pagans  or  indifferent  to  religion;  and  on  this 
account,  the  schools  were  less  and  less  resorted  to  by 
the  rapidly  increasing  Christians,  who  were  besides  at 
the  outset  most  largely  recruited  from  the  poorer 
classes  with  whom  school  attendance  had  probably  not 
been  common.     **  In  the  very  heart  of  the  schools," 

(17) 


18 


THE    DARK    AGES 


says  Guizot  speaking  of  the  4th  century,^  *^  there  was 
an  entire  absence  of  liberty;  the  whole *of  the  profe.- 
sors  were  removable  at  any  time.     The  emperor  had 
full  power,  not  only  to  transfer  them  from  one  town 
to  another,  but  to  cancel  their  appointment  whenever 
he  thought  fit.     Moreover,   in  a  great  many  of  the 
Gaulish    towns,  the   people    themselves    were'  against 
them,  for  they  were  Christians,  at  least  in  a  great 
nK^Jority  of  cases,  and  as  such  had  a  dislike  for  schools 
which  were  altogether  pagan  in  origin  and  intention. 
Ihe  professors  accordingly  were  regarded  with  hostil- 
ity  and  often  maltreated;    they  were,  in    fact,  quite 
unsupported  except  by   the   remnant    of    the    hither 
classes,  and  by  the  imperial  authority  which  still  m'ain- 
tamed  order  "     To  this  statement  may  be  added  that 
the  higher  classes,  to  whom  the  schools  must  look  for 
support,  sunk  in  luxury  and  effeminacy,  had  lost  all 
taste   for   learning,   and   hence   were  little  strenuous 
that    neir  sons  should  be  educated.     It  is  not  surpris- 

Tyfrv"!         ';  '''"\ '?  '^'  '^^  ^^"^"^'^  ^^^  ^i^il  ^^^j'ools 
eve  y^ here  showed  decay,  that  their  efforts  to  attract 

s  udents  through  knowledge  made  easy  by  abbrevi  . 

t  on.  and  epitomes  failed  of  success,  and  that  in  the 

bh  century  they  died  out  totally,  having  grown  out 

The  tenVenturies  which  intervene  from  oOO  to  1500 

t  .fZ  "''''^^'  ''"'^  '^'  ^^'^^^'  ^^^^^'  ^-^  the  first 
^x  of   them  may  not  inappropriately  be  called  the 

^!::^J^?^1^^  hanng  been  illumed 


enT^*"'''v-  '^  ^''^^^^"^i<^°  '«»  France.  Lecture  4th 
entr-   '  'bis  connection. 


which  should  be  read 


GROWTH    OF   CHRISTIAXITY 


19 


only  by  a  transient  and  local  gleam  of  light  in  the  age 
of  Charlemagne.  The  power  of  Rome  died  out,  quite 
as  much  in  consequence  of  the  degeneracy  of  life  and 
manners  as  of  the  inroads  of  the  barbarians.  WTiile 
Rome  retained  her  pristine  virtues,  such  inroads  had 
wrought  only  temporary  injuries;  but  now  in  her  de- 
generacy they  brought  wide-spread  ruin,  which  yet 
held  concealed  within  it  the  germs  of  a  better  civiliza- 
tion. The  ages  which  succeeded  the  downfall  of  the 
Western  Empire  were  marked  by  tumults  and  dis- 
orders, such  as  were  incident  to  the  breaking  up  of 
polities,  and  to  the  infusion,  absorption,  and  general 
amelioration  of  barbarian  elements,  preparatory  to  the 
formation  of  new  states.  What  seemed  like  final  dis- 
solution was  only  incubation.  For  ages  everything  is 
in  a  state  of  perpetual  fiux;  new  hordes  of  barbarians 
hurl  themselves  upon  the  partially  assimilated  and 
domesticated  earlier  swarms;  kingdoms  rise  like  bub- 
bles, and  like  bubbles  burst  and  disappear;  violence 
prevails;  laws  are  silent:  industry  languishes:  and 
learning  has  no  encouragement;  yet  during  these 
times  Christianity  spreads  rapidly,  and  is  accepted  by 
the  barbarians  with  as  great  avidity  as  by  more  civil- 
ized races.  This  was  the  hopeful  element  in  the  situa- 
tion. 

It  was  wholly  natural  that  men  whose  earthly  con- 
dition  was  wretched  and  precarious  should  grasp 
eagerly  at  the  hope  of  something  better  beyond  the 
grave.  It  was  equally  natural,  in  the  circumstances 
of  the  times,  that  the  pure  and  simple  doctrine  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  should  become  clouded  by 
superstitions,  and  disfigured  by  corruptions.     Hence 


> 


CAUSES   OF   GENERAL   IGNORANCE 


21 


20 


THE   DARK    AGES 


religion,  on  the  one  hand,  grew  into  the  form  of  an 
unlovely  asceticism,  which  however  had  most  important 
effects  on  learning  and  education;  on  the  other  and 
larger  side,  it  assumed  the  shape  of  a  great  temporal 
authority.  The  church  of  Christ ^  who  had  declared 
that  his  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,  gradually  be- 
came a  hierarchy,  and  for  ages  was  the  sole  power 
whose  behests  had  somewhat  general  influence  among 
men.  This  was  doubtless  a  fact  which,  on  the  whole, 
had  a  beneficent  effect  on  the  condition  of  Europe  dur- 
m<r  the  ages  of  darkness  and  confusion. 

Such  being  the  condition  of  the  times,  whether  con- 
sidered from  the  religious  or  the  politico-social  point 
of  view,   there  is  little  reason  for  surprise  that  they 
were  characterized  by  dense  ignorance,  as  well  among 
the  nobles  as  among  the  less-favored  classes,  and  that 
this  ignorance  was  but  slightly  mitigated  even  among 
the  large  majority  of  the  clergy.     The  testimonies  to 
the  prevailing  ignorance  amongst  all  classes  and  at 
various  epochs,  are  too  abundant  to  leave  any  room  for 
doubt.     Contracts  even  for  the  sale  of  land  were  made 
verbally  from  the  lack  of    notaries.     Charters    were 
signed  with  a  cross  because  the  highest  personages  did 
not  know  how  to  write.     Charlemagne  strove  when 
emperor  to  learn  to  write;    **but,''   says  his  friend 
Eginhard,  "  the  work  too  late  begun  had  little  success, 
— parum  prospere   successit.''      Were   it   needful,   it 
would  be  easy  to  multiply  testimonies   to   the  dense 
ignorance  that  prevailed  during  several  centuries. 

The  causes  of  this  ignorance  are  not  far  to  seek. 
Besides  the  violence  and  uncertainty  of  the  times  which, 
it  may  readily  be  conceived,  offered  conditions  highly 


unfavorable  to  the  spread  or  even  the  preservation  of 
learning;  and  besides  the  correlated  lack  of  ready  and 
safe  intercourse  of  communities  with  each  other, 
whereby  knowledge  might  pass  'from  hand  to  hand, 
there  were  other  very  obvious  causes  for  the  prevalence 

of  ignorance. 

1.  First  of  all  Diay  be  remarked  the  general  worth- 
lessness  of  what  stood  in  the  place  of  literature.     The 
dislike  of  the  early  Christians  for  their  pagan  oppres- 
sors had  presently  extended  itself  to  their  literature, 
which  was  distrusted  besides  on  account  of  both  its 
origin  and  the  mythology  that  it  embodied.     Hence  in 
the  early  centuries   they   deliberately  cut  loose  from 
the  culture  of  the  past,  and,  to  avoid  the  dangers  that 
they  feared,  they  separated  themselves  from  the  stores 
of  knowledge  gained  by  the  experience  of  the  ancient 
world.      Henceforth   the   few   who   could   read    were 
limited  mostly  in  their  choice  to  monkish  homilies  and 
to  the  theological  polemics  which  sprung  abundantly 
from  the  frequent  religious  controversies  of  those  times. 
This,  as  may  be  supposed,  was  a  kind   of  literature 
neither   very   fruitful    in   point    of  culture,  nor   very 
likely  to  entice  men  to  overcome  the  difficulties  of 
learning  to  read  for  the  sake  of  perusing  it. 

2.  Aside  from  the  Bible,  not  only  was  the  available 
reading  matter  mostly  worthless,  but  whatever  books 
there  were,  were  very  scarce  and  very  dear,  very  much 
rarer  and  dearer  than  they  were  in  Rome  under  the 
empire,  when  they  were  copied  by  skilful  slaves  and 
sold  at  moderate  prices.  During  the  Middle  Ages, 
not  only  was  the  cost  of  transcription  enhanced,  but 
the  material  on  which  books  were  written,  papyrus  and 


22 


THE    DARK    AGES 


THE   FEUDAL    SYSTEM 


23 


parchment,  had  become  very  costly  and  difficult  to  ob- 
tain. From  both  these  causes,  books  could  be  pro- 
cured only  at  immense  prices,  a  very  weighty  cause  of 
the  prevailing  ignorance. 

3.  Add  to  this  that  even  these  costly  books  were 
written  in  Latin,  the  only  tongue  then  in  common  use 
for  literary  purposes;  that,  of  the  numerous  brood  of 
dialects  that  were  springing  up,  none  had  become  suffi- 
ciently developed  or  sufficiently  predominant  to  war- 
rant its  use  in  books  until  the  latter  part  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages;  and  that  hence,  even  when  books  could  be 
obtained,  they  were  utterly  unintelligible  to  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people, — and  we  shall  find  little  rea- 
son to  wonder  at  what  might  otherwise  seem  to  us  the 
almost  incredible  ignorance  of  all  classes  during 
several  centuries. 

4.  Another  consideration  that  seems  worth  naming 
in  this  connection,  is  that  for  a  long  period,  the  very 
idea  of  the  need  of  any  education  seems  to  have  been 
totally  lacking.  The  peoples  of  a  cultured  origin  had 
forgotten  the  tradition  of  any  book  knowledge;  whilst 
many  more,  sprung  from  barbarian  stock,  had  never 
had  any  such  tradition.  The  clergy  set  little  value  on 
it,  the  warlike  nobles  despised  it,  the  masses  knew 
nothing  of  it. 

5.  As  if  these  causes  which  tended  to  make  ignor- 
ance unavoidable  were  not  enough,  an  additional  one 
came  into  prominence  in  the  '.Hh  century,  in  the 
spread  of  the  feudal  system.  From  its  own  nature, 
in  combination  with  the  manners  and  spirit  of  the 
times,  it  added  isolation  to  the  other  causes  which  in- 
tensified ignorance.     The  feudal  families  lived  shut  up 


,n  their  strongholds,  around  which  clustered  villages 
|)f  their  dependents,  ministers  to  their  wants,  and  vic- 
:ims  of  their  caprice.     From  their  castles,  the  barons 
often  issued  for  purposes  of  violence  and  rapine,  mak- 
ing all  travel  especially  perilous;  whilst  their  depend- 
mts  were  shut  ot!  from  intercourse  with  similar  com- 
nunities  by  barriers  of  the  most  rancorous  hostility. 
When  these  several  obstacles  to  learning  are  consid- 
red  together,  they  will  materially  aid  us,  as  well  to 
Lrm  some  conception  of  the  condition  of  things  dur- 
ing that  portion  of  the  Medieval  period  which  is  called 
the  Dark  Ages,  as  to  understand  some  of    the  chief 
nfiuences  which  either  caused  or  intensified  the  bar- 
barous ignorance  by  which  they  were  characterized. 
The   means  of  culture  found  their  chief  resource   in 
Imonasteries.     Macaulay  says:  ''  Had  not  such  retreats 
■been  scattered  here  and  there  among  the  huts  of  the 
■miserable  peasntry  and  the  castles  of  the  ferocious  aris- 
tocracy, European   society   would   have   consisted   of 
beasts  of  burden  and  beasts  of  prey.     The  church  has 
many  times  been  compared  by  divines  to  the  ark  of 
which  we  read  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  but  never  has 
the  resemblance  been  more  perfect  than  during  the  evil 
time  when  she  alone  rode,  amidst  darkness  and  tem- 
pest, on  the  deluge  beneath  which  all  the  great  works 
of  ancient  power  and  wisdom  lay  entombed,  bearing 
within  her  that  feeble  germ  from  which  a  second  and 
more  glorious  civilization  was  to  spring." 

Through  these  ages,  however,  dark  as  they  may 
appear  to  be,  may  be  seen  flowing  three  distinct  cur- 
rents of  educational  effort,  which  for  centuries  were 
wholly  independent  of    each  other,  but  which  ulti- 


^.:4S&AiMM&mSMiaa:!^ 


iE^^^iSS-' 


24 


CURRENTS    OF    EDUCATIOXAL    ACTIVITY 


mately  assumed  most  important  and  interesting  rela 
tions,  to  the  great  benefit  of  learning.     These  were  Isi 
the  Saracenic  current  which,  beginning  in  the  East  in. 
the  7th  century,  extended  in  the  8th  to  Spain,  wherd 
it  attained  its  greatest  volume  in  the  9th,  10th  ancf 
11th  centuries,  and  even  exerted  a  reviving  influenci 
on  the  barrenness  of  Western   Europe;  2d  that  of  tb 
Byzantines  in  Eastern  Europe  by  which  the  old  Greet 
learning  and  literature  were  preserved   to  bear  ne^ 
fruit    among   the   western   nations;    and    3d   that    ol 
Western  Europe  which,  though  at  first  verv  obscure  J 
learning,  finally  drew  into  itself  reanimating  streamd 
from  both  the  other  currents,  whollv  absorbed  the  Bvl 
zantine  current  in  the  15th  eenturv,  and  has  sin^e 
been  flowing  on  with  ever-increasing  volume  and  force 
These  currents  of  educational  activitv  with  their  rela- 
tions to  each  other  and  their  fluctuations  in  the  several 
centuries,  admit  of  a  graphic  representation  as  in  tht 
accompanying  diagram,  in  which  (1)  represents  the 
course  of  Saracenic  education,  (•>)  that  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  and   (3)   that   of  Western    Europe.     An   at- 
tempt  has  also  been  made  in  (3)  to  indicate  approxi- 
mately  the  main  direction  of  educational  progress  bv 
expansions  above  and  below  the  central  line. 

We  will  first  describe  the  Saracenic  and  Bvzantine 
efforts  at  intellectual  progress,  both  because  of  their 
greater  brilliancy  during  much  of  the  Middle    \ge3 
and  because  they  throw  light  on  the  later  culture  of 
Western  Europe. 

Of  the  culture  of  the  Saracen.,  u  mav  be  truthfully 
said  that  it  was  most  brilliant  in  the  a^es  when  West- 
em  Europe  was  in  Cimmerian  literarv  darkness      In 


26 


THE   SARACEXS 


the   enthusiastic  ^ords  of   Karl    S.),    •. 
:me  when,   together  .id    d.e    f!,f '"/'^r  "  ^°   '^^ 
J-^P're.  its  culture  also  was  uL  '^'  ^'"''^^ 

-      J^-  ■■  when  barbarian  inroaJt  wefe'"''  "'!''^'^"°Pted 
^--     ■earing  with  thetn  cnnf  """'P'"^  *'^^'- 'h' 
,-'-   Christian   prie^   w    e  "r  "'  '"'^"^'■-=- 
'■^^^^  ^^f   l^eretics/and   w""n.  a  T"°^"  P^oscriptior 
agamst  classic  literature  ^  Z,  •  '^'^^^^^""i^e    warfar, 
>-«f"ge  in  the  cloister    in    'J'V'  ?'^  ^'^'^'^  to  tak, 

^^rirts  were  mechanic  HcoSd      ■'^^'^^'^"'  -'>^« 
\P'"^-    the    arts   and        enej     ^'^'^  "^^"^^ '^^  ^hr 

;hone  n-u  lite  a  beam  of  ,4  'wh  l,"1'*^  ""'  ^''''^^^■ 
'^V^'^-°  ~^Pint  also  in  tt  7r  t""'^  ^^^-'"'"^ 
."^^Jan  Spain  Europe  receive  ''■     ^'""^  -'^-^ham- 

"^  fi^^t  acquaintance  whth''  "".^"^''^  ^•^'^^'"'^^  -nd 
;^Peei.llv  with  Optics  a,^  ^^^^-^neec  of  nature. 
Aroh:;,,,ure.  The  Moh.n  '^f'''"'''\'-  -^  also  with 
the  model  of  Christi,,n  tS:f   '"'^'"'''^    ''-'>- 

-Mohamre;rif";:rbe7o>!!:rT  '"■-  ••-  ^-th  o. 

''"d  the  Koran,  and  rhrhl  '''''''  '°  ^^^^ing' 

Present  time  in  schools  atuctdT,r''°"^^^  '"^  'hf' 
these  soon  succeeded  higher    1    ?    . '  '^"''i''''-     To 
l«f-s.  and  colleges  for  U.o V  ''"'  '"'  '""^  '^^^'thier 
^'^  °'°^^-"nder  teachers  of  Wi         T^'^  "  ^^o^^u^h 
and  medicine.     The  artranT-'-^'"'^''"P^-^*  '^^'>^ogr, 
amongst  the  Mohammedan  nat,'""'''  '^''^^  ^P^^^- 
»?ed  by  the  caliphs.     The  trl         '  "^  ^'''  ^^'oj. 
»t^d  the  philoso;hr  of  [lloTr"'  ''  '^"''''^  ^^^^^Z 
^ers,ons.   were  ransacked  to  ad  r"'^'*'^'  '^'"^  ^^^ 

•^^•^•i^rr      TT— :: — - — ^l_f^  philosophy 


REMARKABLE    PROGRESS 


27 


1 


i 


of  Aristotle.     They  cultivated  Astronomy  with  success, 
erected  many  obseryatories,  made  tolerable  astronomic 
measurment's,  amongst  these  determining  the  earth's 
circumference  at  about  '24,000  miles;  but  they  adhered 
to  Ptolemy's  theofy  of  the  solar  system,  and  debased 
the  science  by  mingling  with  it  Astrology.     For  Medi- 
cine they  showed  special  aptitude,  and  in  this  during 
the  Middle  Ages  they  were  everywhere  acknowledged 
as  authorities.     They  had  translations  of  Galen  and 
Hippocrates,  to  which   some   of  their   writers    added 
much  of  value,  and  the  medical  school  of  Salernum 
doubtless  owes  its  origin  to  one  of  their  pupils,  Con- 
stantine  of  Carthage.     The  science  of  chemistry  they 
originated— some  of  its  names  are  theirs— though  they 
also  perverted  it  to  a  vain   search  after  a  means    of 
transmuting  base  metals  into  gold;  the  invention  of 
gunpowder  in  the   13th  century   is   also   with  much 
probability  ascribed  to  them.     They  had  translations 
of   the  Greek  mathematics,  Euclid,  and  the  algebra 
of    Diophantus.      Algebra    was   greatly   advanced   in 
their   hands    bv    Mohammed-ibn-Mousa   who   carried 
equations  through  the  second  degree;*  and  Europe  re- 
ceived  from  them  its  knowledge  of  the  decimal  nota- 
tion stamped  with  their  name.     The  literature  and 
language  of  Greece  however  they  seem  to  have  dis- 
dained, gaining  their  knowledge  of  its  science  solely 
through  translations  by  Christians  and  Jews,  to  both 
of  whom  they  extended  a  degree  of   toleration  and 
even  favor  elsewhere  unknown  during  those  times. 

Much  of  this  surprising  scientific  progress  had  been 
made   within  two  centuries   succeeding  the  death  of 

•  Hiitoire  G^fU-ra.e  ii  IV  Steele  etc..  Vol.  1,  pp.  T%5-45. 


28 


THE   SARACENS 


Mohammed.  The  celebrated  caliph,  Ilaroun  al  Ras- 
chid,  the  contemporary  of  Charlemagne,  did  much  to 
encourage  education,  by  founding  schools  and  libraries 
by  caumug  translations  of  Greek  works,  and  by  send- 
ing large  numbers  of  learned  men  to  make  scientifio 
journeys.  Other  caliphs  founded  academies  like  those 
of  Bagdad,  Bokhara,  and  Damascus,  provided  them 
each  with  a  library,  and  paid  the  salaries  of  their 
teachers. 

But  great  as  is  the  interest  attaching  to  the  intel- 
lectual activity  of  the  Saracens  in  the  East,  it  is  to  the 
Arabs  in  Spain  that  Europe  became  chiefly  indebted. 
In  the  last  half  of  the  8th  century,  as  the  result  of 
a  fierce  struggle  between  two   royal  families,  Abdar- 
rahman  of  the  line  of  the  Ommeyades,  escaping  from 
the  massacre  of  the  residue  of  his  family  save  one,  fled 
westward  through  Africa,  made  a  lodgment  in  Spain, 
which  had  already  yielded  to  the  Moslem  arms  and 
established  there  a  flourishing  Saracenic  empire.     The 
kindly  alliance  then  formed  with  the  Jews,  by  whom 
he  Moslems  had  been  materially  aided  in  thlir  con 
quest,  endured  according  to  Gibbon  until  both  wore 
driven  out  of  Spain  seven  hundred  years  later  Zl 

rote      Wh-M    ^''.{  ^''P'^  ^"''"^'^  •^■^^^•h^'«  '-  Eu- 
rope.    Whilst  in  other  parts  of  Europe  confusion  and 

prlSeTtr".''  "/"'^"  -^Pain  peace  and  order 
pre^alled;  the  arts  and  agriculture  flourished;  indus- 
try was  secure  of  its  fruits;  and  education  was  so  un  - 
versally  diffused  that  it  is  said  it  was  difficul  to  find 
in  Andalusia  a  person  who  could  not  read  and  write 
Famous  universities  arose  like  those  of  Cordovl  S  ! 


THE   TENTH    CENTURY 


29 


ville,  Toledo,  and  Salamanca,  to  which  a  few  studious 
youth  from  Italy  and  Gaul,  like  Gerbert  and  Arezzo 
resorted,  undeterred  by  the  tales  of  necromancy  which 
ignorant  Europe  told  of  the  sciences  that  the  Moslems 
there  pursued.* 

A  rich  poetic,  romantic,  and  philosophic  literature 
so  greatly  flourished  that  the  learned  Oriental  scholar 
Deutsch  asserts  that  in  the  library  of  one  of  the  later 
caliphs  there  were  over  400,000  books,  mostly  by  Span- 
ish authors;  and  this  statement  is  confirmed  by  a  very 
recent  author  in  the  Ilistoire  Generale,  Vol.  1.  Karl 
Schmidt  gives  the  number  as  600,000,  but  the  smaller 
number  is  sufficiently  incredible,  and  affords  a  suffi- 
ciently vivid  contrast  to  the  literary  poverty  of  Chris- 
tian Europe  in  those  ages.  Deutsch  states  that  the 
prototypes  of  many  European  legends,  like  those  of 
the  Cid  and  Arthur  of  the  Round  Table,  as  also  the 
metres  of  poems  of  Dante  and  Petrarch,  are  traceable 
to  the  Arabic  poetry  of  Spain  and  Sicily. 

The  highest  point  of  Mohammedan  culture  in  Spain 
appears  to  have  been  reached  during  the  10th  century. 
Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  an  equal  toleration  of 
all  religious  beliefs;  but  in  the  succeeding  ages  there 
occurred  an  outburst  of  religious  fanaticism,  the  result 
of  wars  with  Christian  Spain  and  of  change  of  dynas- 
ties, by  reason  of  which  literature  and  learning  declined 
to  some  extent;  yet  when  driven  from  Spain,  the  Moors 
as  they  were  called  were  still  evidently  far  more  en- 
lightened than  their  bigoted  enemies. 

Besides  the  remarkable  intellectual  activity  dis- 
played by  the  Saracens  in  the  cultivation  of  science 

♦Schmidt-Geschichte  der  Pftdagogik,  Vol.  2,  pp.  111-113. 


30 


THE   SARACKXS 


and  literature,  and  in  fostering  schools,  academies, 
libraries,  and  universities,  they  produced  on  the  shores 
of  the  Caspian,  about  1060  A.  D.,  a  Moslem  Solomon 
in  the  person  of  the  roval  author  of  the  Book  of 
Cabus;  and  in  Spain  in  1190,  an  educational  prototype 
of  Rousseau  in  Ibn  Tophail.* 

The  Book  of  Cabus  was  written  by  a  father  for  his 
son  and  heir,  giving  him  wise  counsels  for  the  sciences 
he   should   master;  for  the   virtues  which  he  should 
make  habitual  in  his  practice,  and  the  prudence  that 
belongs  with  virtue;  for  the  bodily  exercises  in  which 
he  should    be  skilled,   and    the   moderation   that  he 
should  observe  in  these  as  in  all  other  parts  of  life  • 
for  the   interest  that  he  should  manifest   in  all   the' 
vocations  pursued  by  his  people,  since  a  prince  should 
have  knowledge  of  all  that  concerns  his  subjects;  and 
for  the  manner  in  which  he  shall  hereafter  train  up 
his  sons  and  daughters.     A  brief  passage  on  the  treat- 
ment of  children,  which  is  curious  in  itself,  mav  serve 
as  a  specimen  of  the  style  of  this  treatise.     "  Should 
the  teacher  beat  thy  son,  show  no  over-drawn  sympa- 
thy with  him;  let  him  be  beaten;  for  children  learn 
sciences,  arts  and  good  manners  onlv  under  the  rod- 
-that  IS  they  learn  only  from  fear  of  blows  and  of 
the  teacher's  chidings,  but  from   nature  or  of  their 
own  impulse  learn  they  nothing."     The  divergence  of 
this  advice  from  that  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  theo- 
rists IS  not  more  obvious  than  its  coincidence  with  the 
Ideas  of  Solomon  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  chil- 
dren.    Great  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  knowledge  of 
'}ZJ^^_^^^_Goiin   so   far  as   he  mav  be  known 


♦Schmidt  Gt^sch.  der  PWagocik.     Vol.  2.  pp.  114-124." 


'I 


IBX     TOPHAIL 


/ 


31 


through  the  study  of  man  who  is  his  image,  and  of 
the  world  which  '*  He  created  not  wantonly  but  that 
He  might  show  forth  His  justice  and  excellence,  and 
which  He  adorned  because  He  knew  well  that  beauty 
is  better  than  ugliness  and  riches  better  than  poverty." 
Hence  in  the  opinion  of  this  author  '*  religion  is  the 
loftiest  and  most  excellent  of  all  sciences.  It  is  a  tree 
whose  roots  are  the  belief  in  the  onlv  God,  and  whose 
branches  are  the  law."  *'  Therefore,"  he  says,  **  apply 
thyself  diligently,  my  son,  to  the  knowledge  of  relig- 
ion, for  it  is  the  pith  of  the  tree  of  which  the  rest  of 
the  sciences  are  only  the  twigs." 

The  fundamental  idea  of  Ibn  Tophail  is  that  a 
human  being  without  any  intercourse  with  his  fellow 
men,  and  so  without  the  inculcation  of  any  positive 
religious  or  other  ideas  through  education,  could,  by 
dint  of  the  ordinary  experiences  which  nature  thrusts 
upon  him  and  by  natural  inferences  from  these,  attain 
to  a  true  knowledge  of  nature  and  of  God.  Hence  he 
imagines  an  illegitimate  son,  born  of  a  king's  daughter 
and  committed  to  the  waves  immediately  after  birth  in 
a  little  ark.  He  is  driven  upon  an  uninhabited  island 
where  he  is  nursed  by  a  doe.  Living  here  amongst 
beasts  and  birds,  he  learns  to  subordinate  himself  to 
nature's  laws,  and  to  fashion  for  himself  clothing  after 
the  example  of  his  brute  associates.  From  observation 
of  the  special,  he  attains  to  general  ideas.  From  the 
organization  of  living  beings  and  from  their  unseen 
life-energies,  he  conceives  the  idea  of  an  invisible 
Power  who  originates  life;  and  from  the  unity  and 
order  of  the  universe,  he  convinces  himself  that  this 
unseen  Power  is  one  and  is  intelligent.     Furthermore, 


MJAnWi^ii^  .w^.-...i.A»«..t 


32 


THE   SARACENS 


by  reflecting  on  his  own  spiritual  operations,  he  arrives 
at  the  idea  that  as  this  thought-power  in  himself, 
which  while  using  the  experiences  of  the  senses  still 
transcends  them,  is  incorporeal,  therefore  God  must 
be  a  spirit.  Such  is  a  very  condensed  sketch  of  the 
work  of  Ibn  Tophail,  which  like  Kousseau's  is  couched 
in  the  form  of  a  romance.  When  we  come  to  study 
Rousseau's  Emile,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  see  that, 
whilst  some  of  the  ideas  of  this  moslem  work  are  curi- 
ously analogous  to  those  of  Emile,  the  divergences  are 
greater  than  the  resemblances.  The  idea  in  both  of 
isolating  the  pupil  from  his  fellows,  and  subjecting  him 
wholly  to  the  influences  of  nature  that  he  may  be  objec- 
tively taught  by  the  experiences  of  nature,  is  well-nigh 
the  sole  point  of  contact  and  is  especially  striking;  but 
with  this,  both  resemblance  and  analogy  end.  The  ideas 
of  the  two  men  as  to  the  course  which  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  development  takes  in  the  human 
being  under  the  influences  of  experience,  have  little 
resemblance.  Fanciful,  however,  as  the  educational 
scheme  of  the  Moorish  author  may  appear  to  be,  it  is 
hardly  more  fanciful  or  impracticable  than  that  of  the 
erratic  Frenchman,  save  that  the  latter  substitutes  a 
paragon  of  a  tutor  as  a  companion  for  the  child,  in 
place  of  the  beasts  and  birds  of  Ibn  Tophail. 


\ 


Literary  Actiyity  of  the  Byzantines 

The  mediseval  Byzantine  learning  was  the  lineal  suc- 
cessor of  that  of  the  ancient  Greeks.     After  the  ex- 
tinction of  paganism,  and  the  closing  of  the  '*  schools 
of  Athens  "  early  in  the  6th  century,  the  old  Greek 
studies  were  mostly  restricted  to  some  of  the  monas- 
teries  and   to   the  Royal  College  of  Constantinople. 
But  during  the  dynastic  and  religious  disorders  of  the 
7th  and  8th  centuries,  the  college  was  destroyed,  its 
library  of  many  thousand   volumes  was  burned,  and 
learning  found  its  sole  refuge  in  the  monasteries  on 
Mt.  Athos,  and  in  a  few  of  those  on  the  islands  of  the 
Archipelago.     The  9th   century  however  witnessed  a 
great   revival   of    interest   in  learning.     The   Caesar, 
Bardos,  uncle  of  the  emperor,  became  its  patron,  and 
founded  in  the  capitol  ''  a  free  university,  independent 
of  church  and  clergy  in  which  distinguished  teachers 
of  philosophy,  geometry,  astronomy,  and  high  gram- 
mar, gave  lectures  which  he  himself  attended."     The 
salaries  of  the  teachers  were  paid  by  the  state ;  Leo, 
archbishop   of  Thessalonica,    a   man   famous   for  his 
knowledge  of  astronomy,  mathematics,  and  philosophy, 
was  placed  at  its  head;  and  Photius,  reputed  the  most 
[earned  man  of  the  age,  was  summoned  to  the  capitol 
as  patriarch.     A  library  of  the  ancient  works  of  Greek 
literature  was  carefully  collected ;  and,  on  account  of 
the  intellectual  indolence  that  prevailed,  its  contents 

(33) 


34 


THE   BYZANTINES 


were  imparted  in  extracts,  abridgments,  and  epitomes. 
From  this  time  forth  until  Constantinople  was  taken 
by  the  Turks  in  1453,  amidst  all  the  revolutions  and 
changes  of  dynasties,  a  certain  type  of  learning,  in- 
ferior indeed  in  essential  character,  had  its  continuous 
centre  in  Constantinople.  It  was  promoted  by  succes- 
sive emperors,  and  its  resources  were  enlarged  by  ad- 
ditions of  books,  so  that  in  the  12th  century,  Constan- 
tinople had  a  rich  collection  of  the  ancient  Greek  lit- 
erature, in  which  are  named  some  works,  like  the 
comedies  of  Menander,  whose  loss  is  deplored  by 
scholars.  Some  of  the  old  monasteries  also  had  val- 
uable libraries,  and  these  in  much  later  ages  became 
famous  as  places  where  valuable  manuscripts  have 
been  found  after  centuries  of  oblivion.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  court  and  church  had  something  of 
Attic  purity;  literary  works  in  the  ancient  tongue 
were  undertaken  by  Anna  Comnena,  daughter  of  the 
emperor  Alexius,  of  whom  and  of  the  manners  of  the 
court,  and  the  Greek  pride  of  race,  Sir  Walter  Scott 
gives  a  graphic  picture  in  **  Count  Robert  of  Paris  "; 
and  a  persistent  effort  was  made  to  re-establish  the 
reign  of  the  ancient  Greek  science,  literature,  and 
philosophy,  under  Christian  auspices. 

But  the  Byzantines  showed  themselves  incapable  of 
making  any  original  and  independent  use  of  all  their 
learned  resources.  The  stamp  of  intellectual  barren- 
ness is  impressed  on  all  that  they  did.  They  could 
collect,  edit,  comment,  and  copy  manuscript;  could 
make  epitomes;  could  compile  lexicons  and  manuals  of 
rules;  but  their  attempts  at  poetic  and  historic  com- 


\ 


INTELLECTUAL   STAGNATION 


35 


position  are  valueless,  and  their  efforts  at  philosophy 
are  a  mere  "  scholastic  summary  of  Aristotle  ". 

Gibbon*  attributes  their  literary  and  scientific 
sterility  to  the  bewilderment  of  their  understandings 
by  metaphysical  controversies,  to  which  they  were 
fatally  prone;  to  the  vitiation  of  their  taste  by  monk- 
ish homilies,  which  seems  to  me  a  more  doubtful 
cause;  to  a  loss  of  all  reliable  principles  of  moral 
evidence  through  a  belief  in  present  miracles  and 
visions;  and  to  the  total  lack  of  emulous  rivalry  with 
other  polished  nations.  *'  Alone  in  the  universe,"  he 
says,  ''  the  self-satisfied  pride  of  the  Greeks  was  not 
disturbed  by  the  comparison  of  foreign  merit;  and  it 
is  no  wonder  if  they  fainted  in  the  race,  since  they 
had  neither  competitors  to  urge  their  speed,  nor  judge 
to  crown  their  victory.'' 

With  regard  to  the  first  reason  that  Gibbon  assigns, 
Hallam  saysrf  *' The  Greeks  abused  their  ingenuity 
in  theological  controversies,  those  especially  which  re- 
lated to  the  nature  and  incarnation  of  our  Savior, 
wherein,  as  is  usual,  the  disputants  became  more  posi- 
tive and  rancorous  as  their  creed  receded  from  the 
possibility  of  human  apprehension." 

It  is  possible  that  some  one  or  all  of  these  circum- 
stances may  have  been  influential  in  producing  the 
undoubted  intellectual  stagnation  of  the  Byzantines, 
their  poverty  of  spirit  amid  great  literary  riches. 
But  it  is  well  that  we  should  bear  in  mind  that  for 
abundantly  more  than  ten  centuries  before  the  age 
that  we  are  considering,  this  same  poverty  of  spirit 

*  History  of  Decline  and  Fall  of  Roman  Empire,  C.  53. 
t  Middle  Ages,  C.  VL 


36 


THE    BYZANTINES 


had  characterized  the  degenerate  descendants  of  Socra- 
tes and  Aristotle,  of  Homer,  Sophocles,  and  Demos- 
thenes; and  this  too  when  their  intellects  were  not  jet 
bewildered  with  empty  controversies,  at  least  about 
ecclesiastical  subjects,  nor  their  judgments  clouded 
by  superstitious  beliefs,  nor  their  taste  vitiated  by 
barbarous  homilies;  and  when  a  generous  emulation 
with  other  polished  nations  was  still  vividly  open  to 
them  in  Rome  and  Alexandria,  had  their  national  self 
conceit  been  ready  to  accept  it. 

Hence  we  must,  I  think,  look  for  some  deeper  cause 
of  the  fact  that  we  are  considering;  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that  this  may  be  found  in  the  lack,  by  both 
the  Byzantine  Greeks  and  their  predecessors  for  a  long 
series  of  generations,  of  any  high  ideal  of  human 
life  and  human  destiny,  like  that  which  the  founder 
of  Christianity  presented,  but  which  the  nations  were 
not  yet  prepared  to  receive,  because  even  a  Divine 
revelation  requires  ages  for  the  experience  of  mankind 
to  grow  up  to  its  apprehension. 

The  Byzantine  people  had  far  greater  treasures  from 
antiquity  than  we  have  received  from  them,  but  they 
seemed  incapable  of  advancing  by  their  use;  and,  as 
Schlegel  truly  says,  in  his  History  of  Literature 
(Lecture  7),  ''  The  matter  of  chief  importance  in  all 
civilization,  and  in  all  literature,  is  not  the  dead  treas- 
ures we  possess,  but  the  living  uses  to  which  we  apply 
them.''  He  further  says  that  amongst  the  country- 
men  of  Aristotle,  **  such  was  the  neglect  of  his  writ- 
ings,  which  we  consider  as  amongst  the  most  precious 
monuments  of  the  Grecian  intellect,  that  there  re- 
mained at  one  time  but  a  single  copy,  and  that  too 


A   SARCOPHAGUS   OF    LITERARY    TREASURES 


37 


rescued  from  destruction  by  an  accident  of  the  most 
extraordinary  nature." 

It  would  really  seem   that   the   ancient  poets   and 
orators,  historians  and  philosophers,  artists  and  scien- 
tists,  had  exhausted  the  entire  cycle   of  possibilities 
of  the  Grecian  intellect,  on  the  plane  on  which  it  per- 
sisted in  standing;  and  had  bequeathed  to  their  succes- 
sors a  "  barren  sceptre  ",  entailing  an  inglorious  show 
of  empty  sovereignty,  until  it  should  be  transferred 
to  the  realm  of  some  new  and  loftier  ideal.     Incapa- 
ble of  this  transfer,  or  too   indolent   to   attempt   it, 
there  was 'left  to  the  Byzantines  only  the  humble  yet 
eventually  useful    office   of   collecting   scattered   and 
rare  books  and  thus  rescuing  from  destruction   the 
precious  fragments  of  ancient  science  and  literature ; 
of  attempting  to  uphold  the  ancient  world  unchanged 
and  unenlarged  against  new  peoples  and  a  new  spirit; 
of  becoming   thereby,  during  many  ages   of  disor^^er 
and  barbarism,  the  sole  refuge  of  the  ancient  culture; 
of    preserving  this   always   in   its   ancient  form   and 
practically  unaltered,  as  it  would  inevitably  not  have 
been  with  a  race  of  vigorous  originality;  and  of  thus 
saving  the  youthful  western  peoples,  whom  they  de- 
spised as  barbarians,  many  weary  and  devious  wander- 
ings to  attain  a  like  culture,  by  presenting  to  them 
ultimately  the  unchanged  antique  types  of  which  they 
]iad  before  been  ignorant.     This  was  indeed  a  humble 
office,  analogous  to  that  of  a  sarcophagus  iri-which  are 
3ntombed  dead  treasures,  yet  it  performed  a  service 
to  the  future  of  learning  not  less  great  or  noteworthy 
because  wholly  unintended.     How  important  was  this 


ajefti»M»A* 


38 


THE   BYZANTINES 


work  of  the  Byzntine  Greeks,  and  how^great  their  un- 
conscious service  to  future  generations,  we  shall  see 
more  clearly  when  we  come  to  study  the  educational 
history  of  the  15th  and  16th  centuries. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHRISTIAN   EDUCATION  TO  THE   AGE   OF   CHARLEMAGNE 

We  have  seen  that  amid  the  gloom  and  confusion  of 
the  Middle  Ages  there  are  discernible  three  currents 
of  intellectual  and  educational  effort ;  and  that  these 
currents,  while  parallel  in  time,  were  for  many  ages 
wholly  distinct  in  space,  having  no  reciprocal  influence, 
separated  not  more  by  location  than  by  ruling  ideas 
and  purposes.  All  were  monotheistic,  believing  in  the 
same  God  whom  the  Hebrews  adored ;  all  opposed  the 
prevailing  heathenism;  two  believed  in  the  same  Son 
of  God  who  had  come  to  save  the  world ;— -but  aside 
from  these  facts  they  had  little  or  nothing  in  common. 

The  followers  of  Mohammed  were  filled  with  a  fiery 
zeal  which  made  them  missionaries  not  less  than  war- 
riors, intent  not  merely  on  conquering  but  on  convert- 
ing the  nations  with  whom  they  came  in  contact. 
This  fanatical  enthusiasm,  which  combined  earthly 
dominion  with  the  spread  of  their  faith,  was  for  sev- 
eral ages  correlated  with  an  intellectual  activity  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  made  their  career  the  most  brilliant 
and  noteworthy  fact  of  any  which  marked  the  world 
of  that  period.  To  confirm  the  faith  which  they  ex- 
tended by  their  conquering  arms,  and  to  perpetuate 
the  results  of  their  intellectual  activity,  they  early  saw 
the  need  of  a  corresponding  education,  and  made  the 
brilliant  educational  efforts  which  we  have  witnessed. 

(39) 


40      CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 

We  have  seen  that  the  Byzantine  education  was 
doubtless  a  continuation  of  the  ancient  Greek  culture, 
greatly  attenuated  indeed  after  the  schools  of  Athens 
were  closed  by  Justinian  and  during  the  religious  con- 
tentions of  the  succeeding  ages,  but  rising  again  into 
prominence  from  the  9th  century.  Here  then  for 
about  six  centuries  the  old  Greek  learning  and  litera- 
ture, with  the  dogmas  of  the  Eastern  Church,  were 
industriously  taught;  but  with  an  utter  lack  of  orig- 
inality for  which  later  ages  have  reason  to  be  grateful, 
since  thereby  the  finest  products  of  the  old  Greek  in- 
tellect have  in  large  measure  reached  us  unchanged. 

We  come  now  to  the  examination  of  the  third  of 
these  currents  of  intellectual  life,  long  inconspicuous 
while  the  others  were  brilliant,  yet  into  which  these 
finally  converge,  and  from  which  they  gain  their  sig- 
nificance in  educational  history.  And  here  it  becomes 
essential  that  we  should  first  observe  the  nature  of  the 
ideal  which  forms  the  basis  of  Christian  education,— 
an  ideal,  towards  which  through  ages  of  darkness  and 
mistaken  effort,  it  has  slowly,  deviously,  and  through 
many  unavoidable  errors,  been  gradually  approximat- 
ing. 

In  the  ancient  world,  as  we  have  seen,  man  was 
valued  as  a  means  for  magnifying  and  exalting  the 
state  to  which  he  belonged,  and  chiefly  ih  so  far  as  he 
was  useful  for  that  purpose.  With^  the  coming  of 
Christ,  however,  with  the  example  of  his  divine  man- 
hood, and  with  his  teachings,  a  new  idea  was  intro- 
duced into  the  world,  which  was  destined  to  produce 
far-reaching  consequences  on  both  civilization  and  edu- 
cation.    It  was  the  idea  of  the  infinite  worth  of  the 


A   NEW    IDEAL 


41 


\ 


human  being  as  such,  since  he  is  destined  to  an  im- 
mortality of  duration,  since  God  is  immanent  in  him, 
and  since  his  loftiest  work  is  to  become  perfect,  as  his 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

In  its  truest  expression,  therefore,  Christianity  views 
all  men  as  equal  in  valuation  before  God,  and  their 
destiny  as  of  equal  moment  to  Him.  Before  him 
mere  human  rank  and  station  are  nothing.  The  like 
destination  of  all  men  as  His  children  demands  there- 
fore equal  rights,  equal  duties,  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
equal  opportunities  for  education,  for  all  men,  and 
gives  to  all  mankind  a  claim  on  the  proper  brotherly 
ofl&ces  of  their  fellows. 

It  is  a  confused  recognition  of  this  fundamental 
truth  in  our  own  times,  a  truth  which  in  early  ages 
the  ancient  Hebrews  alone  saw,  and  yet  saw  not  clearly, 
which  inspires  the  various  humanitarian  movements 
and  the  newly  awakened  consciousness  of  the  mutual 
duties  of  capital  and  labor,  the  duties  of  the  rich  to 
the  very  poor,  and  of  the  learned  to  the  ignorant,  with 
which  our  age  is  rife.  This  idea,  opposed  by  material- 
ism and  selfishness,  and  so  obscured  by  them  that 
Christianity  has  often  seemed  little  better  than  mere 
worldliness,  has  been  slowly  leavening  the  world  and 
its  educational  agencies,  and  in  these  latter  days  is 
moving  more  swiftly  towards  its  realization. 

Christ  himself,  in  honoring  marriage  by  his  cooper- 
ation, in  the  love  that  he  manifests  for  children,  in  the 
emphasis  that  he  lays  on  character  as  of  more  worth 
than  riches  or  worldly  success,  and  in  showing  that  the 
chief  aim  of  man's  existence  is  the  elevation  of  him- 
self   out  of    the  earthly  into  the    spiritual   through 


42      CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 

righteousness  and  truth,— as  well  as  by  his  models  of 
how  teaching  should  be  done  and  the  spirit  in  which  it 
must  be  done  to  attain  the  highest  success,  has  both 
laid  the  foundations  of  modern  pedagogy  and  revealed 
to  us  its  ideal. 

This  ideal,  may  be  thus  briefly  expressed.  Its  aim 
is  universal  and  purely  humanitarian.  It  has  no  sec- 
tional limits,  no  merely  utilitarian  implications.  '*  It 
is  to  minister  to  the  welfare  of  society  and  the  state 
by  caring  for  the  welfare  of  the  individual  man;  to 
push  the  divine  and  human  in  man's  nature  to  its  full- 
est possible  development,  that  he  may  become  intel- 
lectually and  morally  free  and  so  like  his  Maker;  and 
to  use  thereto  all  science  and  art,  the  world  and  life, 
as  means  of  culture,  by  mastering  which  man  may  also 
become  a  benevolent  and  creative  intelligence  in  his 
limited  sphere,  as  God  is  in  his  infinite  one." 

This  idea  which  makes  the  individiuil  and  not  the 
state  the  chief  centre  of  interest,  and  which  aims  to 
prepare  man  for  eternal  happiness  hereafter  by  bring- 
ing into  vigorous  activity  during  his  earthly  career  all 
that  is  best  in  him,  as  thinker  and  worker,  and  as 
sharer  in  all  the  multiform  relations  of  social  life,— 
was  so  unlike  anything  in  the  ancient  world,  that  it  is 
not  surprising  that  it  required  ages  of  blind  groping 
before  its  fulness  of  meaning  because  apparent  to 
mankind.  Here  as  elsewhere,  even  a  divine  revelation 
has  needed  the  interpretation  of  a  long-continued 
human  experience  to  make  its  meaning  clear. 

The  earliest  Christians  seem  indeed,  at  least  in  some 
recorded  cases,  to  have  maintained  with  each  other 
fraternal  relations,  having  all  things  in  common,  and 


MONASTERIES 


43 


I 


the  rich  ministering  of  their  abundance  to  their  poorer 
brethren.  The  sphere  of  voman  was  in  the  family, 
but  there  she  was  the  co-equal  of  man,  the  chief 
teacher  of  the  young,  and  their  guide  in  the  forma- 
tion of  character.  Children  were  looked  upon  as  a 
precious  gift  of  God,  who  were  to  be  trained  for  His 
service  and  for  that  of  their  fellow  men.  The  earli- 
est Christian  education  was  therefore  domestic  in 
character,  and  in  this  the  child  was  trained  to  a  keen 
sense  of  duty  through  the  inculcation  of  Christian 
ideas  by  precepts  and  more  etfectually  by  the  example 
of  parents  and  friends. 

So  far  then  the  early  i)ractice  conformed  fairly 
though  unconsciously  to  its  ideal.  But  this  uncon- 
scious conformity  did  not  long  contnue.  With  many, 
the  dominion  of  old  ideas  was  too  strong  to  be  at  once 
overcome;  while  with  the  more  zealous  and  spiritual- 
minded,  exclusive  contemplation  of  the  future  life 
presently  led  to  a  neglect  of  this  world  and  its  duties, 
that  by  ascetic  observances  they  might  prepare  them- 
selves for  the  unseen  world.  Hence  in  the  East  pious 
men  became  at  first  hermits,  and  later  were  led  by  the 
strong  social  instinct  to  form  societies  for  an  exclu- 
sively religious  life.  This  practice  soon  spread  to  the 
West,  and  in  both  East  and  West  monasteries  arose. 
This  fact  was  fraught  with  the  most  important  con- 
sequences to  the  future  of  learning,  for  which,  during 
the  ages  of  violence  and  disorder,  the  monasteries  be- 
came the  onlv  safe  retreat. 

The  old  Roman  utilitarian  spirit  also  did  not  disap- 
pear with  the  subversion  of  the  empire.  It  survived 
in  a  new  form,  and  as  the  Christian  church  gathered 


44      CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 

strength  by  its  accessions  this  spirit  reappeared  in  its 
dogmas,  its  methods,  and  the  purposes  for  which  it 
used  literature.*  Amidst  the  violence  and  the  con- 
flicts which  were  rife,  the  church  was  forced  to  rely 
on  its  dominion  over  the  minds  and  consciences  of 
men.  Hence  it  was  not  strange  that  it  should  foster 
even  superstitions  that  aided  it  in  this  purpose,  and 
that  it  should  in  all  ways  claim,  and  exercise  so  far  as 
practicable,  a  limitless  control  over  thoughts,  thus 
suppressing  freedom  of  thinking,  self-centred  individ- 
uality, and  self-judging  responsibility. 

With  the  introduction  into  the  world's  history  of 
this  new  humanitarian  idea,  an  idea  which  cares  best 
for  society  and  the  state,  for  this  present  world  and 
for  the  unseen  world,  by  caring  primarily  for  the 
complete  development  of  the  individual,  mankind  has 
completed  its  cycle  of  experience  of  the  ideas  that  can 
influence  education,  and  has  reached  the  last  and 
highest,  which  it  is  now  its  duty  to  strive  fully  to 
realize. 

Let  us  now  trace  the  history  of  its  progress  among 
the  nations  of  Western  Europe;  let  us  note  the  ex- 
pedients  that  were  adopted  during  ages  of  change 
and  confusion  to  keep  alive  some  feeble  sparks  of 
learning,  at  least  among  the  clergy,  and  the  vicissi- 
tudes  to  which  these  efforts  were  subjected;  let  us 
also,  while  noticing  the  deviations  of  education  from 
Its  high  ideal  under  the  pressure  of  invincible  neces- 
sity,  observe  besides  how  an  influence  from  Saracenic 
culture  came  to  co-operate  with  other  influences  aris- 
ing  from  the  circumstances  of   the  times  in  giving 

•Guizot.  Civilization  in  France.  Lecture  16th,  p.  102. 


THE   CATECHUMENATE 


45 


'^ 


origin,  impulse,  and  direction  to  theearly  universities; 
and  how,  a  few  centuries  later,  when  the  universities 
were  struggling  under  the  yoke  of  a  narrow  and  nar- 
rowing dialectic,  a  fresh  impulse  springing  from  the 
effete  East,  which,  while  itself  preserving  a  form  with- 
out spirit,  had  yet  been  the  conservator  of  the  old 
Greek  culture,  came  to  infuse  a  new  spirit  into  the 
vigorous  but  now  lethargic  West  and  to  turn  it  ulti- 
mately to  the  pursuit  of  its  long-misunderstood  and 
neglected  ideal. 

The  first  Christian  efforts  for  education,  apart  from 
the  domestic  training  which  has  already  been  alluded  to, 
was  the  establishment  of  the  Catechumenate,  the  ob- 
ject of  which  was  to  teach  adult  proselytes  before 
baptism  to  read  the  Bible  and  to  understand  and  ac- 
cept the  fundamental  Christian  doctrines.  These 
schools  were  taught  by  the  pastors,  and  were  divided, 
it  is  said,  into  first  two  and  later  four  stages  of  ad- 
vancement. Their  purposes  were  limited  to  impart- 
ing a  knowledge  of  distinctively  Christian  truths,  the 
purely  literary  education  of  the  few  who  desired  it 
being  still  gained  from  the  heathen  civil  schools.  The 
special  training  of  those  who  desired  to  become  Chris- 
tian teachers  was  gained  by  intimacy  with  the  pastors 
and  by  imitation  of  their  example,  the  civil  schools 
being  here  also  relied  upon  at  first  for  imparting  the 
knowledge  that  was  needful  for  their  sacred  vocation. 

The  first  attempt  to  connect  religious  with  literary 
and  scientific  teaching  was  made  by  Pantanus  in  Alex- 
andria, 181  A.  D.,  in  a  school  which  from  its  procedure 
by  question  and  answer  was  called  the  Catechetic 
school.     It  was  founded  as  a  school  for  the  systematic 


-^- 


46      CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 


interpretation  of  Scripture,  together  with  instruction 
in  grammar,  rhetoric,  philosophy,  and  geometry. 
Presumably  it  was  intended  to  make  attendance  at 
heathen  schools  unnecessary. 

Pantanus  was  succeeded  in  this  school  by  Clemens 
of  Alexandria,  who  believed  that  the  heathen  philoso- 
phers were,  like  Moses,  in  some  degree  divinely  in- 
spired, and  that  philosophy,  like  the  Mosaic  writings, 
was  a  preparation  for  the  more  complete  revelation 
which  was  made  by  Christ  and  which  is  the  fulfilment 
of  philosophy  as  well  as  of  the  law.  Hence  he  taught 
his  pupils  what  was  good  in  philosophy  as  well  as  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  aimed  thus  gradually  to  lead  them 
up  to  Christianity, — a  procedure  which  seems  to  have 
been  judicious  with  those  who,  while  well-disposed 
towards  the  new  faith,  still  had  a  hereditary  respect 
for  the  works  of  the  great  heathen  sages. 

Clemens  was  succeeded  by  the  wise  and  learned 
Origen,  under  whom  this  school  attained  its  greatest 
and  most  brilliant  reputation.  Origen  connected  the 
study  of  nature  with  dialectics,  so  as  to  lead  his  dis- 
ciples from  nature  up  to  God,  a  noteworthy  etfort  in 
that  age.  He  also  taught  geometry  and  astronomy  as 
a  preparative  to  ethics.  Then  followed  the  reading 
and  interpretation  of  the  poets  and  philosophers,  in 
which  he  encouraged  his  pupils  to  full  freedom  of 
investigation,  whilst  he  accompanied  their  efforts  with 
sympathy  and  guidance.  Finally  he  brought  them 
with  this  full  preparation  to  the  knowledge  and  inter- 
pretation of  scripture,  and  in  this  he  made  use  of  the 
idea  of  an  allegoric  or  mystic  meaning  in  the  explan- 
ation of  passages   which   seemed   to   him    to   convey 


PANTANUS,  CLEMENS,    ORIGEN 


47 


notions  unworthy  of  the  Deity — a  mode  of  interpre- 
tation which  prevailed  largely  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

This  account,  summarized  from  Karl  Schmidt,  will 
give  an  idea  of  the  subjects  and  methods  of  this  school 
during  the  time  of  its  greatest  prosperity  in  the  3d 
century.  Origen  was  succeeded  by  other  teachers  of 
some  repute,  but  the  school  sank  into  insignificance 
after  the  middle  of  the  4th  century. 

Thus  far  we  see  no  openly  expressed  opposition  to 
heathen  science  and  literature  nor  to  the  sending  of 
Christian  youth  to  heathen  schools.  But  in  the  3d 
century  a  note  of  opposition  to  the  civil  schools  began 
to  be  heard,  beginning  with  Tertullian  and  expressing 
itself  prominently  in  the  Apostolic  Constitutions, 
about  300  A.  D.,  and  later  in  the  writings  of  Chrys- 
ostom. 

The  Constitutions  say:  "  Refrain  from  all  the  writ- 
ings of  the  heathen;  for  what  hast  thou  to  do  with 
strange  discourses,  laws,  or  false  prophets,  which  in 
truth  turn  aside  from  the  faith  those  who  are  weak  in 
understanding."  And  then,  directing  attention  to 
the  Scriptures  as  containing  what  the  faithful  may 
need  of  poetry  and  prophecy,  they  conclude:  '^  Where- 
fore abstain  scrupulously  from  all  strange  and  devilish 
books.""^ 

While  the  teachings  of  Chrysostom  contain  much 
good  sense,  as  for  example  the  declaration  that  women 
are  the  best  teachers  for  children,  they  still  insist  that 
the  cloister  is  the  best  and  safest  place  for  Christian 
education,  because  youth  are  there  isolated  from  the 
corruptions  of  the  world,  and   gain  an  inexpugnable 

*  Mullinger.    Schools  of  Charles  the  Great,  p.  8. 


48      CHBISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 

habit  of  virtue.  Chrysostom  therefore  dissuades  from 
attendance  at  heathen  schools,  where  he  says  **  boys 
learn  vices  rather  than  sciences,  and  in  grasping  after 
lesser  goods  lose  the  greatest.  *  *  *  if  the  soul 
is  virtuous  the  ignorance  of  science  will  not  hurt  it, 
but  if  it  is  corrupted  it  suffers  harm  in  spite  of  the 
most  eloquent  tongue.'' 

The  veto  of  the  Fathers  on  the  civil  schools  has  its 
justification  in  the  fact  that  during  the  last  four  cen- 
turies of  their  existence  they  paid  almost  exclusive 
attention  to  the  mere  ornaments  of  heathen  culture. 

During  the  3d  and  4th  centuries  a  vigorous  opposi- 
tion began  to  be  manifested,  not  only  to  the  heathen 
schools,  but  also  to  all  heathen  literature,  the  best 
and  indeed  the  only  literature  then  accessible,  save 
the  Scriptures,  that  was  worthy  to  be  called  litera- 
ture. Early  in  the  3d  century  this  opposition  was  led 
by  the  fiery  and  uncompromising  Tertullian,  who  was 
followed  by  his  disciple,  Cyprian,  the  learned  and 
pious  bishop  of  Carthage,  and  he  by  St.  Jerome  and 
St.  Augustine,  all  counted  among  the  fathers  of  the 
Christian  church. 

Nor,  when  we  consider  the  circumstances  and  the 
times,  does  this  opposition  seem  to  have  been  prompted 
by  an  unwarrantable  prejudice.  For  the  world  was 
but  slowly  emerging  from  the  shades  of  heathenism, 
and  all  the  surroundings  still  bore  the  heathen  stamp; 
yet  the  literature  that  the  church  fathers  proscribed 
presents  the  heathen  ideas  and  mythology  in  their 
most  alluring  guise.  It  was  not  unreasonable  there- 
fore to  fear  the  influence  of  such  literature  on  impres- 
sible youth,  who  must  besides  be  brought  into  daily 


i 


i 


I 


A   MKI)L*:VAL  SCHOOL.     (From  Cublxriey's  Syllabus,  stfter  h  title 
pape  of  Anwykyll's  Compt^ndiuin  GrMmnijiticau) 


(49) 


l^ 


OPPOSITION  TO  HEATHEN  LITERATURE 


51 


contact  with  heathenism,  unless  secluded  in  cloisters. 

But  in  those  ages,  besides  this  not  unfounded  fear, 
the  heathen  were  meeting  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
miracles  with  rival  pretensions  to  supernatural  powers 
and  to  gifts  of  prophecy  which,  with  the  easy  credulity 
of  superstitious  ages,  the  Christians  accepted  as  true 
and  attributed  to  sorcery  and  to  the  baleful  aid  of  an 
omnipresent  devil,  thus  adding  horror  to  their  distrust 
of  the  heathen  and  all  his  works. 

It  is  needful  also  to  bear  in  mind  the  idea  of  the 
sole  end  of  man  then  strongly  entertained  by  the  en- 
tire Christian  church.  As  antiquity  had  regarded 
man  only  as  a  citizen  of  this  world,  so  the  church 
looked  on  him  only  as  a  pilgrim  to  the  unseen  world, 
a  view  quite  as  one-sided  though  incomparably  more 
worthy  and  elevated.  Of  what  value  then  to  such 
a  pilgrim  this  vain  world  with  the  allurements  of  its 
literary  graces,  especially  when  such  literature  bore 
for  the  Christian  the  fatal  stamp  of  heathen  ideas! 

Unfortunately  for  the  culture  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
this  idea  gained  the  mastery;  the  study  of  ancient 
literature  and  science  mostlj  ceased;  and  thus,  as 
Guizot  remarks,  the  Christian  world  of  Western  Eu- 
rope deliberately  cut  itself  loose  from  the  past  in 
which  it  had  its  roots.  It  was  left  to  much  more 
modern  times  to  regard  man  more  justly  as  a  citizen 
of  both  worlds,  so  using  this  present  time  with  all 
that  is  best  in  its  accumulated  stores  as  to  become  a 
more  completely  developed  inheritor  of  the  future 
world. 

Let  it  not  be  thought,  however,  that  all  the  fathers 
of  the  church  in   the  3d  and  4th  centuries  took  this 


52      CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 

narrow  view  of  ancient  literature.  St.  Basil  (330- 
379),  justly  surnamed  the  Great,  was  more  liberal  and 
judicious.  Like  Plato  he  advised  in  the  education  of 
the  young  the  discriminating  use  of  the  ancient  poets, 
and  especially  Homer.  He  even  thought  that  such  a 
study  would  be  a  useful  preparative  for  the  deeper 
study  of  the  scriptures;  and  he  adduces  in  support  of 
this  opinion  the  examples  of  Moses  and  Daniel,  trained, 
the  one  in  all  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians,  and  the 
other  in  the  deepest  mysteries  of  the  Chaldean  lore, 
before  occupying  themselves  with  the  religious  con- 
templation whereby  they  became  the  law-giver  and 
the  prophet  of  their  people. 

We  may  here  call  attention  to  the  beginnings  in 
these  centuries  of  a  distinctive  church  music,  which 
originated  in  the  regulation  by  St.  Ambrose  of  the 
tones  and  measures  which  were  best  adapted  to  the 
solemn  services  of  the  church.  Hence  the  church 
issued  from  its  early  experiences  supplied  with  its  two 
earliest  and  too  often  exclusively  used  means  for 
youthful  education,  viz.,  religious  doctrines  and 
church  song. 

To  these  was  added,  when  all  the  branches  of  the 
western  church  had  come  to  look  to  Rome  as  their 
common  centre  and  national  head,  the  only  language 
which  in  the  Middle  Ages  could  lay  any  claim  to  uni- 
versality, the  Latin.  This  became  not  only  the  gen- 
eral vehicle  for  ideas  to  the  learned  among  many 
widely  scattered  peoples,  but  also  a  kind  of  universal 
symbol  of  a  common  faith,  a  sign  of  Christian  unity, 
indeed  in  some  sort  a  sacred  language,  in  which  all 
who  would  officiate  in  the  services  of  the  church  and 


CELEBRATED   TEXT-BOOKS 


53 


« 


i 


all  who  would  aspire  to  influence  in  the  gravest  affairs, 
must  be  duly  instructed. 

Here  then  we  have  outlined  the  staple  of  instruc- 
tion during  a  large  part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  here 
the  consecrated  medium  through  which  instruction 
was  imparted. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  certain  works  had  great 
celebrity  as  text-books,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  as 
authorities,  insomuch  that  they  are  of  frequent  men- 
tion in  literary  history,  and  hence  they  become  import- 
ant factors  in  the  educational  history  of  the  period. 
Both  they  and  their  authors  had  an  importance  and 
extent  of  influence  that  no  text-book  or  its  author 
has  attained  during  the  past  five  centuries.  A  few  of 
these  works  deserve  a  brief  mention  here,  in  addition 
to  the  far  earlier  books  described  in  my  History  of 
Ancient  Education  (chapter  xviii,  pp.  262-272). 

Martianus  Capella,  who  is  supposed  to  have  died 
about  500  A.  D.,  prepared  a  work  in  nine  books  on 
the  liberal  arts,  in  which  verse  is  somewhat  liberally 
interspersed.  The  arts  are  fancifully  treated,  since 
the  first  two  books  present  science  in  general  under 
the  guise  of  a  marriage  of  Mercury  with  Philology, 
merchandise  with  letters,  utility  with  culture,  at  which 
the  seven  bridesmaids  treat  in  turn  of  the  seven  liberal 
arts  of  the  Middle  Ages  constituting  the  Trivium  and 
Quadrivium.  Extensive  as  its  subject  is,  it  is  by  no 
means  a  large  book.  The  elementary  treatment  of 
any  one  of  the  arts  that  it  touches  would,  at  present, 
make  quite  as  large  a  book. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  6th  century  treatise  an- 
other on  the  seven  liberal  arts  was  written  by  Magnus 


54      CHBI8TIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 


CELEBRATED   TEXT-BOOKS 


55 


Aurelius  Cassiodorus,  a  Roman  of  high  rank  who  later 
became  a  monk.  Schmidt  says  this  treatise  had  great 
ecclesiastical  favor  as  a  school  book,  on  account  of  the 
piety  of  its  author,  as  well  as  because  of  its  brevity. 

At  nearly  the  same  period  as  these  two  authors, 
Boethius,  a  man  of  noble  Roman  family,  wrote  in 
prison  a  work  entitled  **  The  Consolation  of  Philos- 
ophy ",  in  which  also  poetry  is  plentifully  used.  For 
many  centuries  this  work  was  widely  read  in  schools, 
and  held  well-nigh  the  place  of  a  supplement  to  the 
Bible.  Later  it  was  translated  into  many  languages, 
an  English  translation  accompanied  by  a  life  of  Boethius 
being  published  in  1695  by  Richard,  Lord  Preston. 
Besides  this  work  he  composed  also  treatises  on  arith- 
metic, geometry,  and  music  which  were  much  used  in 
schools,  and  were  fuller  and  more  satisfactory  than 
those  of  Capella. 

Isidore,  archbishop  of  Seville,  (+  G36  A.  D.)  wrote 
a  work  in  twenty  books,  which  treats  not  only  of  the 
seven  liberal  arts  but  also  of  all  other  branches  of 
knowledge  then  known  to  men,  constituting  a  veritable 
encyclopoedia  of  the  knowledge  of  the  7th  century. 
This  is  probably  the  earliest  encyclopaedia  ever  written, 
and  is  highly  interesting  as  showing  the  range  of  sub- 
jects thought  important  in  the  7th  century.  Beginning 
with  the  liberal  arts,  it  ranges  through  ships  and  their 
equipment  to  household  furniture,  food,  and  even 
various  kinds  of  drinking  vessels. 

But  of  all  the  men  who  composed  works  tised  in  the 
schools  of  the  Middle  Ages,  none  is  more  worthy  of 
consideration  by  Englishmen  or  their  descendants  than 
Baeda,  commonly  known  as  the  Venerable  Bede.     His 


it&r 


^ 


long  and  studious  life,  extending  from  673  to  755  A. 
D.,  was  passed  chiefly  in  the  monastery  of  Jarrow. 
Here  he  gradually  mastered  all  the  learning  of  his 
time,  being  skilled  in  Greek  as  well  as  Latin,  a  rare 
thing  in  his  day.  He,  as  well  as  Isadore,  composed  an 
encyclopaedic  work  for  the  use  of  his  pupils,  for  he 
was  all  his  life  a  teacher.  He  wrote  also  a  long- 
esteemed  History  of  the  English  Church.  His  last 
labor  was  a  translation  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  into 
his  native  Anglo-Saxon  tongue,  and  his  choice  of  this 
gospel  was  wholly  in  harmony  with  his  own  gentle  and 
spiritual  character.  The  brief  but  affecting  account 
of  the  life  and  death  of  this  great  English  scholar  and 
teacher  in  Green's  ''  Short  History  of  the  English 
People ''  will  be  read  with  interest  by  all  who  are  at- 
tracted to  educational  history.* 

Contemporaneous  with  Charlemagne  and  a  pupil  of 
Alcuin,  was  Rabanus  Maurus,  the  head  of  the  famous 
cloister-school  of  Fulda  which  still  exists  as  a  gymna- 
sium, who  was  later  prince  archbishop  of  Mainz,  and 
who  is  known  by  the  proud  title  **  Primus  praeceptor 
Germaniie.''  He  too,  besides  other  works  used  as 
school-books,  wrote  for  the  use  of  his  pupils  an  ency- 
clopaedic work  on  all  the  sciences  then  known.  It 
was  evidently  modelled  on  the  earlier  work  of  Isidore, 
draws  from  the  same  sources,  treats  much  the  same 
topics  in  its  twenty-two  books  in  nearly  the  same  order, 
and  shows  the  same  lack  of  any  effort  at  extending  the 
boundaries  of  knowledge. 

The  last  of  the  famous  mediaeval  school-books  that 
shall  be  named  is  the  Doctrinale  of  Alex.  Dolensis, 


•OP.  cit.  C.  1.     Section  4th. 


56 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 


( 


MONASTIC   AND   CATHEDRAL   SCHOOLS 


which  was  the  great  text-book  of  grammar  from  the 
13th  to  the  IGth  century,  and  was  doubtless  the  dread 
of  all  school  boys  who  conned  its  crabbed  pages.* 

Such  then  were  the  chief  text-books  on  which  was 
based  most  of  the  instruction  given  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  Let  us  now  see  what  provisions  for  school  in- 
struction existed  during  the  first  centuries  of  this 
period.  From  500  to  1100  A.  D.  these  were  wholly  of 
two  kinds,  viz.  Monastic  schools  belonging  to  the  mon- 
asteries and  taught  by  the  monks,  and  Cathedral  schools 
established  at  the  seats  of  bishops  and  carried  on  un- 
der their  supervision. 

The  monastic  schools,  which  chiefly  afforded  educa- 
tion to  others  than  monks,  owe  their  origin  to  St 
Benedict  (+  543  A.  D.),   who  founded  an  order  of 
monks  that  take  their  name  from  him.     His  object 
was  the  combination  of  religious  contemplation  with 
labor;    labor  in  agriculture  and    other  employments 
adapted  to  the  secluded  life  of  monks;  labor  in  tran- 
scribing and  multiplying  manuscripts  and  in  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures;  labor  also,  which  chieflv  interests 
us  here,  in  the  instruction  of  the  young.     This  instruc- 
tion was  primarily  intended  for  those  who  expected  to 
devote  themselves  to  the  service  of  the  church,  but 
ultimately  instruction  was  sought  for  from  the  monks 
by  those  who  had  no  such  intention.     Hence  grew  up 
m  the  course  of  time  a  separation  of  their  pupils  into 
interns  and  extems,  or  those  taught  within  the  cloisters 

♦For  further  information  on  those  old  «r>hn«i  »^.l 

^chmldt.  Gesch.  der  Padaeoeik   Vol    II   nn   i«*_i«o         ,  o      '-"'^^•^•IV; 
Unterrichtswesen  in  DeutschLnd  ^  IV ''•  ""   ""'  '^'"'^  ^««^»^-  ^'^ 


57 


I 


f 


for  the  religious  life,  and  those  taught  without  for 
more  secular  purposes. 

These  Benedictine  communities  multiplied  rapidly 
over  Europe,  and  extended  the  blessing  of  elementary 
and  sometimes  of  more  advanced  instruction  to  not  a 
few  who  contemplated  secular  vocations.  Laurie  says  : 
**  It  is  to  the  monks  of  this  rapidly-extending  order, 
or  to  the  influence  which  their  rule  exercised  on  other 
conventual  orders,  that  we  owe  the  diffusion  of  schools 
in  the  earlier  half  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  preser- 
vation of  ancient  learning.  The  Benedictine  monks 
not  only  taught  in  their  own  monasteries,  but  were 
everywhere  in  demand  as  heads  of  episcopal  or  cathe- 
dral schools."* 

.The  subjects  taught  in  these  schools  were  first  of  all 
reading,  writing,  and  singing  in  accordance  with  the 
system  of  St.  Ambrose.  To  these  were  added  enough 
arithmetic  to  calculate  the  return  of  the  church  festi- 
vals, occasionally  some  reading  of  classic  authors  for 
merely  grammatical  purposes,  and  in  some  cases  an 
exceedingly  elementary  study  of  the  Trivial  and  Quad- 
rivial  branches.  The  greatest  extent  of  any  of  these 
branches  may  be  seen  by  consulting  the  encyclopaedias 
of  Isidore  or  Rabanus  Maurus. 

Episcopal  or  cathedral  schools  of  some  kind  doubt- 
less arose  at  a  quite  early  period  to  subserve  the  abso- 
lute necessities  of  the  bishops  in  providing  clergy, 
readers,  and  choristers  for  the  extension  and  even  for 
the  bare  continuance  of  their  work.  Indeed  we  might 
consider  the  Catechetic  school  of  Alexandria  as  the 
prototype  of  these  schools.     Their  studies,  aside  from 

•  Laurie- Rise  and  Constitution  of  Universities.  Lecture  2d. 


58      CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 

the  natural  religious  training,  embraced  branches  of 
the  Trivium  and  Quadrivium;  but  we  have  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  instruction  was  other  than  of  the 
most  meagre  and  elementary  character,  presenting 
only  such  topics  as  were  of  the  most  obvious  and  press- 
ing necessity,  and  with  little  or  no  attention  to  the 
multiplication  of  manuscripts.  It  hardly  need  be 
said  that  the  instruction  in  these  schools  as  well  as  in 
the  monasteries  was  given  wholly  in  Latin. 

In  the  generation  immediately  preceding  the  activity 
of  Charlemange,  or  about  750  A.  D.,  Bishop  Chrode- 
gang  of  Metz  made  a  vigorous  eflFort  to  improve  the 
Episcopal  schools  by  setting  an  example  of  their  better 
organization,  and  his  exertions  seem  to  have  produced 
some  little  effect;  but  any  considerable  change  for  the 
better,  both  in  these  and  in  the  monastic  establish- 
ments awaited  the  strong  hand  of  the  wise  and  ener- 
getic Charlemagne. 

The  condition  of  learning  previous  to  790  A.  D.  may 
be  brieffy  summed  up  in  this  way.     Learning  pertained 
chiefly  to  the  clergy  and  was  by  no  means  universal 
even  among   them.     The  peasantry  as  a  class  were 
taught  only  the  dogmas  of  the  church,  though,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  democratic  spirit  that,  to  its  honor 
has  always  animated    the    Roman    Catholic  church' 
boys  of  ambition  and   promise  from  any  class  could 
gam  ready  admission  to  whatever  opportunities    for 
learning  were  available,  and  a  capitulary  of  Charle- 
magne gives  reason  to  believe  that  boys   of  humble 
birth  formed  the  majority  of  the  pupils.     Nobles  and 
princes    at   the   best,  learned    only   the   elements   of 
knowledge,  together  with  church  doctrines  and  sing- 


CONDITION    OF    LEARNING,   790    A.   D. 


59 


4 


I 


t 


ing,  to  which  was  added  in  the  case  of  princes  some 
elementary  knowledge  of  whatever  laws  then  existed. 
The  ability  to  read  and  write  was  more  common 
among  noble  girls  than  among  their  brothers,  but  for 
the  best  educated  girls  who  were  taught  in  the  clois- 
ters, the  chief  subjects  were  church  observances, 
domestic  duties,  and  embroidery;  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  small  modicum  of  learning  here  enumer- 
ated existed  to  any  considerable  extent  in  the  wide 
Frankish  dominions  until  near  the  time  of  Charle- 
mange.* 

Even  the  consecrated  language,  the  Latin,  had  de- 
generated and  become  barbarized.  What  better  could 
be  looked  for  when  even  so  enlightened  a  prelate  as 
Gregory  the  Great  thought  it  shameful  that  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Holy  Spirit  should  be  subjected  to  the 
petty  restraints  of  grammar  ?t 

In  the  times  of  which  we  are  speaking  Ireland  and 
England  were  confessedly  the  brightest  abodes  of 
Christian  learning.  The  suspicion  of  dislike^^f  hea- 
then literature  and  science  had  not  affected  them 
seriously,  and  hence  both  Greek  and  Latin  literature— 
the  Greek  more  especially  in  Ireland— were  cultivated 
in  their  monasteries  with  a  zeal  and  success  not  exhib- 
ited elsewhere.  The  Venerable  Bede  was  doubtless  far 
above  an  average  specimen  of  monkish  learning  in  the 
early  part  of  the  8th  century,  even  in  these  favored 
islands,  as  yet  comparatively  little  troubled  by  devas- 
tating wars;  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the 

•Mullinger-Schools  of  Charlemagne,  p.  68.  Specht,  Geach.  des  Unter- 
riohtswesens,  etc.     Ist  chapter  expresses  a  different  opinion. 

t  Schmidt,  Geschichte  der  P&dagogik.  Vol.  2,  p.  188;  and  Hallam,  Mid- 
dle Ages,  C.  IX  part  Ist. 


I 


60 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  BEFORE  CHARLEMAGNE 


schools  of  Ireland  and  England,  and  especially  in  those 
of  Jarrow  and  York,  there  was  a  relatively  high  grade 
of  scientific  attainment. 

Thus  Alcuin  is  quoted  by  Guizot  X  as  saying  of  that 
of  York  in  his  day,  about  760  A.  D.,  ''  The  learned 
Albert  gave  drink  to  thirsty  minds  at  the  sources  of 
various  studies  and  sciences.     To  some  he  was  eager 
to  communicate  the  art    and  rules  of  Grammar;  for 
others  he  caused  the  waves  of  Rhetoric  to  flow.     He 
exercised  these  in  the  combats  of  jurisprudence  and 
those  in  the  songs  of  Adonia.     Some  learned  from  him 
to  sound  the  pipes  of  Castalia,  and  to  strike  with  lyric 
foot  the  summits  of  Parnassus.     To  others  he  taught 
the  harmony  of  the  heavens,  the  works  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  the  five  zones  of  the   pole,  the   seven   wander- 
ing stars,  the  laws  of  the  course  of  the  stars,  their 
appearance  and  decline,  the  motions  of  sea,  the  tremb- 
lings of  the  earth,  the  nature  of  men,  of  beasts   and 
birds,  and  the  inhabitants  of  woods;  he  unveiled  the 
various  qualities  and  the  combinations  of  numbers;  he 
taught  how  to  calculate  with  certainty  the  solemn  re- 
turn of  Easter;  and,  above  all  he  explained  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Uoly  Scriptures." 

From  this  description,  whose  evident  inflation  of 
style  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  a  cold  prose  rendering 
of  what  was  poetry  in  the  original,  we  learn  that  in 
'York  there  was,  for  that  period,  a  generous  course  of 
study,  including  not  only  most  of  the  seven  liberal 
arts,  but  also  jurisprudence,  natural  history,  and  the 
exposition  of  the  Scriptures. 

It  happened  from  this  better  state  of    learning  in 

t  History  of  Civilization  in  France,  Lecture  22. 


.. 


THE    DANISH    INVASION 


61 


these  islands  that  not  a  few  scholars  were  summoned 
thence  to  promote  learning  in  the  continent,  amongst 
whom  was  Alcuin  himself,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
and,  at  a  later  day,  John  Scotus  Erigena,  whose  name 
indicates  his 'Irish  origin.  This  brighter  condition  of 
learning,  however,  was  doomed  to  a  rude  interruption, 
early  in  the  9th  century,  from  the  Danish  invasions, 
which  wrought  such  havoc  in  the  places  of  study  that 
m  871,  when  Alfred  the  Great  came  to  the  throne,  he 
testifies  that  he  could  not  ''  remember  one  south  of 
Thames  who  could  explain  his  service  book  in  Eng- 
lish  ";  whilst  in  the  northern  part  of  England  "  the 
Danish  sword  had  left  few  survivors  of  the  school  of 
Ecgberht  or  Baeda."*  i 


*  Green,  Short  History  of  the  Ens?lish  People.     Sec.  V. 


J 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING  IN  THE  NINTH  CENTURY 

When  the  state  of  learning  in  England  and  Western 
Europe  was  such  as  has  been  described  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter,  two  monarchs  arose  who,  in  the  last  part 
of  the  8th  century  and  in  the  9th,  made  vigorous  and 
to  a  considerable  degree  successful  efforts  for  the  in- 
crease and  reform  of  schools  and  for  the  revival  of  the 
literary  spirit.  These  were  Charlemange  in  Western 
Europe,  +  814,  and  the  English  Alfred,  +  901. 

Charlemagne,  distinguished  as  a  conqueror  whose 
dominions  extended  over  much  of  Europe,  was  also 
wise  enough  to  desire  that  his  monarchy  should  be 
characterized  not  less  by  its  enlightenment  than  by  its 
extent.  To  promote  the  culture  which  he  desired,  he 
made  use  of  the  clergy  as  the  only  learned  class;  but 
he  was  sagacious  enough  to  look  far  beyond  the  then 
narrow  limits  of  ecclesiastical  learning,  and  to  grasp 
all  the  best  elements  of  progress  then  available  among 
all  the  nations  that  he  ruled.  As  a  faithful  son  of  the 
church  he  desired  a  learned  clergy;  but  as  a  wise  ruler 
he  evidently  regarded  such  a  clergy  as  instruments  for 
the  elevation,  through  education,  of  the  masses  of  his 
subjects,  rather  than  as  mere  guardians  of  ecclesiastical 
lore. 

We  shall  most  easily  gain  a  clear  view  of  Charle- 
magne's efforts  for  the  advancement  of  learning    by 

(62) 


CHARLEMAGNE'S    LETTER   TO    BANGULF 


63 


considering   separately   the   four   most   characteristic 
phases  of  these  efforts: 

(1)  his  improvement  of  the  instrumentalities  through 
which  he  must  work, 

(2)  his  measures  for  the  founding  or  reformation  of 
schools, 

(3)  his  encouragement  of  the  use  of  the  various 
vernaculars  that  prevailed  among  his  subjects,  as  a 
means  for  bringing  learning  within  their  reach, 

(4)  the  learned  men,  especially  Alcuin,  whom  he 
invited  to  supervise  or  further  his  designs. 

(1)  The  instruments  on  whom  he  must^  depend  to 
further  any  efforts  that  he  might  make  for  the  im- 
provement of  education,  were  obviously  the  monks 
and  clergy,  for  they  were  ex  officio  the  representatives 
and  conservators  of  whatever  learning  existed  within 
his  realm.  But  the  intellectual  and  moral  condition 
of  this  class  was  at  that  time  not  encouragiug.*  His 
first  care  must  therefore  obviously  be  given  to  making 
them  what  they  should  be  in  life  and  conduct,  and  to 
secure  in  them  a  respectable  grade  of  learning,  as  well 
scientific  as  ecclesiastical.  He  therefore  issued  to  the 
superior  clergy  edicts  for  the  improvement  of  those  un- 
der their  supervision,  of  which  a  good  example  is  his  cir- 
cular letter  of  787  A.  D.  to  Bangulf,  Abbot  of  Fulda. 

Guizot  in  his  22d  lecture  on  the  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion in  France  gives  with  some  ommissions  a  transla- 
tion of  this  imperial  circular  which  I  copy  here,  adding 
an  omitted  sentence  which  is  suited  to  our  purpose 
from  another  version. f 

♦  See  Mullinger,  The  Schools  of  Charlemagne,  p.  37  et  seq. 
t  A  translation  of  the  entire  capitulary  may  be  found  in  Mullineer  Go 
Cit.  p.  98. 


64 


.'the  ninth  centuky  revival 


your  Devotion  tn  p^h  ,  "7'."®*''''-  ""e  beg  to  inform 

oprics  and  monasteries  confided  to  «  '"         ^''*'" 

favor  of  Christ,  care  should  b  'tin    nTTrl'^ 
orderly  and  according  to  our  holv  r^l  u^  '"  ''"' 

over  to  ,.„,,,„,,  ,„  tL  L::Xv^iSr  irr 

cording  to  the  capacity  of  individuals   lu  7  u 
billing  and  able  to  learn  by  Gld's  hi      v       u'  "' 
of  the  two  it  is  better  to  be  good  tS't.  b"/'""^' 
yet  to  h^^e  knowledge  leads  tfbeing  g^;;  ''  '""^'^' 

pray  for  us.itheifh^  ^'■'''"■'"  ''°"*"'"«d    to 

vate^risol  Vet;  IrrdtTfo^^"  '^^'^  P^' 
while  the  sentiments  were  e.ce it '  th  !  ""''  ""'' 
which  they  were  convevedw!!,,  '"^''^^age  in 
erate.     •    *    *    J  'T*^  was  generally  rude  and  illit- 

»»re readily  „„p,f„/„,i, !  ^.S J','  '^ .•'''  "' 

'"••  vL  r  ?" "' '™'' '"  «"•»"'.-..;  "' 


CHARLKMAGN-r    742-814 


(OT)) 


f 


I 


CHARLEMAGNE'S    LETTER   TO    BANGULF  67 

all  the  suffragan  bishops  and  all  the  monasteries  around 
you ;  and  let  no  monk  go  beyond  his  monastery  to  ad- 
minister justice,  or  to  enter  the  assemblies  and  the 
voting  places.     Adieu." 

This  imperial   circular  shows  the  earnest  desire  of 
Charlemagne  that  his  clergy  should  be  brought  back  to 
purity  of  morals  and  regularity  of  life,  although  he 
cautiously  refrains  from  directly  charging  them  with 
any  delinquencies;  that  they  should  strive  after  a  de- 
cent standard  of  scholarship,   sagaciouslv  basing  his 
anxiety  on  this  account  on  a  motive  likely  to  be  influ- 
ential with  the  clerical  mind,  that  they  might  be  the 
better  able  to  understand  the  Scriptures;  and    that 
they  should  select  and  establish  those  skilful  to  teach 
The  final  sentence  conveys  a  warning  against  meddling 
with  political  and  judicial  affairs,  to  which  we  may  in- 
fer from  this  that  the  monks  and  clergy  had  become 
addicted,  to  the  neglect  of  their  own  proper  duties 
:Noteworthy  also  is  the  emphasis  with  which  he  demands 
that  his  wishes  in  all  these  respects  should  be  strictly 
observed. 

Evidences  are  not  wanting  that  this  circular  of  Char- 
lemagne had  its  desired  effect.  One  of  the  most  inter- 
esting of  these  is  an  autobiographic  account  by  Wal- 
afried  Strabo,  of  the  teachers,  subjects,  and  methods  of 
study  in  the  monastry  of  Reichenau  on  Lake  Con- 
stance, from  the  year  815  to  825  A.  D.,  during  which 
time  he  was  a  pupil  there.*  This  account  by  one  of 
the  pupils  from  his  own  standpoint,  testifies  to  a  con- 
dition  of  studies  and  to  an  ability  and  zeal  on  the 

•  Thl.  Kcount  may  be  found  in  full  in  Schmidt.  Ge.chichte  der  Pid- 
»gogik,  vol.  2d  pp.  1*7-812. 


68 


THE   NINTH    CENTURY    REVIVAL 


part  of  teachers  at  this  monastery  which  is  highly  credi- 
table. That  it  was  no  isolated  instance  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  Strabo  went  later  to  advance  his  learning 
at  Fulda,  then  under  the  charge  of  Rabanus  Maurus, 
"  Primus  praeceptor  Germanise  '\  and  returned  thence 
to  Reichenau  as  teacher  and  ultimately  as  abbot.  This 
two-fold  fact  is  a  striking  indication  of  the  effective- 
ness of  Charlemagne's  efforts. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Charlemagne  by  his  own 
example  added  weight  to  his  commands;  for  he  was  a 
zealous  student  himself,  had  a  school  of  the  palace  for 
himself  and  those  who  surrounded  him  which  followed 
him  wherever  he  went,  and  is  even  said  to  have  learned 
to  write  after  he  came  to  the  throne,  though  the  testi- 
mony of  his  friend  Eginhard  shows  that  he  never  sue- 
ceeded  in  writing  well.  What  courtier,  what  ecclesi- 
astic could  fail  to  put  new  vigor  into  his  efforts  for 
learning,  when  he  saw  his  sovereign,  busy  with  wars 
and  perplexed  by  the  affairs  of  a  vast  empire,  using 
whatever  spare  moments  he  could  steal  from  the  duties 
of  his  station,  in  the  improvement  of  his  learning  ! 

(2)  Having  cared  for  the  improvement  of  those  who 
should  be  teachers  of  the  young,  the  emperor  turned 
his  attention  to  the  increase  of  schools,  requiring  that 
"  in  every  episcopal  see  and  every  monastery,  there 
should  be  a  school  for  instruction  in  the  Psalms,  sing- 
ing, notation,  counting,  and  the  Latin  tongue,  and 
that  the  pupils  should  be  supplied  with  accurately 
transcribed  text-books."*  One  of  the  most  energetic 
of  his  prelates,   Theodulf,   Bishop  of    Orleans,  even 

*  See  also  MuUinger.  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great,  for  a  cap.tulary 
of  789  A.  D.  to  the  same  effect.     P.  100. 


M^ 


AI.FI?i:i»  THK  (J RKAT.  819-901 


ORKiKN   ADAMANTirs    185?-2.\i 
S«e  pu^i'  4(S 


Soe  patr«»  27 


(iALKN,  1»)-20(J 
N*e  pu<;o  27 


KUCLIU.  MJ  :-■:  |{.  (J. 
See  page  27 


(69) 


ARISTOTLK.  :»4-3>2I{.  C 
See  page  142 


CHARLEMAGNE'S   ZEAL   FOR    LEARNING  71 

ordered  his  clergy  to  establish  schools  in  all  the  villages 
and  towns,  where  elementary  instruction  should  be 
gratuitously  given  to  all  willing  youth. 

It  is  also  believed  by  some  that  Charlemagne  had  in 
view  the  general  education  of  the  masses  of  his  people 
in  the  elements  of  learning,  and  that  such  education 
should  be  enforced  by  penalties  for  neglect.  This  idea 
seems  incredible  to  the  point  of  absurdity,  when  we 
consider  the  unsettled  character  of  the  age,  the  lack 
of  teachers,  the  scarcity  and  cost  of  books  and  writing 
materials,  and  the  task  which  it  would  have  involved 
of  teaching  a  strange  language  to  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Yet  it  evinces  the  impression  produced  by 
the  zeal  of  the  emperor  for  promoting  learning. 

He  not  only  cared  for  founding  schools,  but  in  some 
cases  made  personal  examination  of  the  progress  of  the 
pupils.  A  story  that  is  told  of  him  illustrates  this. 
It  is  to  the  effect  that  having  established  a  school  in 
which  boys  of  the  noble  class  and  others  even  of  the 
lowest  rank  were  taught  together,  on  his  return  from 
one  of  his  journeys,  he  caused  their  written  exercises 
to  be  submitted  to  him;  and  then  placing  the  idle  sons 
of  nobles  on  his  left  hand,  and  the  poor  but  industri- 
ous lads  on  his  right,  he  thus  addressed  the  noble 
culprits:  ''  Ye  sons  of  nobles,  ye  pretty  fellows,  who 
think  yourselves  so  high-born  that  ye  have  no  need  to 
learn,  ye  lazy  graceless  scamps,  I  tell  you  that  your 
high-birth  and  your  pretty  faces  shall  avail  you  noth- 
ing. If  you  do  not  change  your  course  and  improve 
yourselves,  ye  shall  become  grooms  and  not  counts  and 
marshals  as  your  fathers  are."  This  energetic  kind 
of  school  inspection  by  the  sovereign  himself,  even  if 


72 


THE    NINTH    CENTUBT    REVIVAL 


Of  no  frequent  occurrence,  was  likely  to  be  more  than 
usually  influential. 

(3)  It  may  readily  be  supposed  that  a  sovereign  so 
•     sagacious  as  Charlemagne  would  not  fail  to  observe 
how  serious  an  obstacle  to  his  efforts  for  the  spread  of 
learning  and  for  the  growth  of  his  people  in  the  ap- 
prehension of  religious  truth,   was  presented  by  the 
fact  that  all  school  instruction  and  all  church  services 
were  couched  in  a  language  unknown  to  the  people 
Por  more  than  two    centuries  before  his  time,   the 
Latin,  current  in  large  portions  of  his  dominions,  had 
been  undergoing  a  progressive  change  from  its  original 
punty,  and  the  germs  of  several  modern  tongues  were 
rapidly  taking  form  in  popular  use.     His  Germanic 
subjects  had  a  language  of  their  own  which  underwent 
less  change. 

Hence  he  set  himself  vigorously  to   encourage  the 
cultivation  of  the  German  vernacular,  and  to  bring 
religious  truths  home  to  the  minds  of  the  people  by 
their  presentation  in  the  mother  tongue.     He  is  sail 
himself  to  have  essayed  the  preparation  of  a  German 
grammar  doubtless  by  other  iiands  more  skilled  with 
the  pen  than  his,  and  to  have  made  a  collection  of  the 
old  German  heroic  songs  which  were  current  among 
the  people  *    From  the  year  preceding  his  death,  the 
clergy  of  the  west  who  were  under  the  government  of 
Charlemagae  made  a  considerable  use  of  the  vernacu- 
lar  tongues  in  preaching,  and  in  instruction  in  the  es- 
sentials of  the  Catholic  faith,:F„lda  and  St.  Gall  seem- 
mg  to  have  been  special  centres  of  influence  for  the 

prefixed  to  a  collection  of  his  pedagogic  wrUiog,     "'"""""  *""""'•  P'  ^• 


Charlemagne's  helpers 


73 


use  of  the  German.  Under  Charles  the  Bald,  grand- 
son of  Charlemagne,  the  French  language  is  said  to 
have  been  used  to  some  extent  as  a  literary  language, 
as  well  as  in  the  speech  of  the  people.  This  is  an  evi' 
dence  of  the  continuing  influence  of  the  efforts  of 
Charlemagne  in  this  interesting  direction. 

(4)  Having  now  discussed  Charlemagne's  efforts  for 
the  promotion  of  education  in  his  dominions,   under 
the  three  points  of  view,  the  better  training  of  the 
monks  and  clergy  who  were  the  instruments  that  he 
must  use  in  his  reforms ;  the  spread  of  schools  through- 
out his  empire  and  the  revival  of  those  that  already 
existed,  at  least  in  name;  and  his  encouragement  of 
the  use  in  instruction  and  in  worship  of  the  vernacular 
tongues  that  had  sprung  up  in  his  wide   dominions, 
with  his  special  efforts  for  the  German  which  was  his 
own  native  speech,  we  have  to  consider  finally  the  men 
whom  he  summoned  to  his  aid  from  a  distance,  and 
what  they  did  for  the  advancement  of  learning. 

Like  all  great  rulers,  Charlemagne  knew  how  to  dis- 
tinguish, encourage,  and  reward  men  of  uncommon 
merit;  and,  by  this  means,  while  furthering  his  own 
ends  by  their  service,  he  also  adorned  his  reign  by  the 
fruits  of  their  genius.  Thus,  to  confine  ourselves 
solely  to  that  which  concerns  learning,  he  first  discerned 
the  merit  of  Leidrade,  though  dwelling  on  the  con- 
fines  of  his  empire,  and  after  testing  him  as  librarian 
and  royal  messenger,  he  elevated  him  to  the  archbish- 
opric  of  Lyons,  where  he  greatly  aided  the  educational 
yiews  of  his  sovereign. 

Thus  he  summoned  from  Italy  Theodulf,  an  Italian 
Goth,  and  made  him  bishop  of  Orieans,  where  he  dis- 


74 


THE   NINTH   CENTLRY    REVIVAL 


tinguished  himself   by  that  zeal  for  the  extension  of 
schools  that  has  already  been  mentioned. 

Thus  he  brought  up  at  his  court  the  promising 
youth,  Eginhard,  raised  him  from  post  to  post  till  he 
became  h.s  trusted  councillor  and,  as  vague  tradition 
says,  also  his  son-in-law;  and  by  this  means  he  unwit- 
tingly trained  up  him  who  should  afterwards  transmit 
to  posterity  his  name  and  deeds  in  the  best  literary 
work  which  that  age  produced. 

Thus  when  two  young  Irish  scholars  had  astonished 
the  crowds  in  the  market  place  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  by 
crying,  "  Whosoever  wants  knowledge  let  him  come  to 
us  and  get  it,  for  we  have  it  for  sale,"  and  when  some, 
thinking  that  they  must  be  madmen  to  be  thus  hawk- 
ing so  strange  a  commodity,  brought  to  the  palace  the 
news  of  their  curious  conduct,  the  emperor  at  once 
sent  for  them,  and  finding  that  they  were  really  learned 
inen  who  asked  no  other  price  for  their  scientific  wares 
than     a  place  to  teach  them  in,  pupils  to  learn  them 
and  needful  food  and  rainent  ",  attached  one  of  them 
to  his  own  School  of  the  Palace  and  sent  the  other  to 
Italy  as  the  head  of  a  school  in  Pavia. 

But  most  notably  of  all  he  displayed  his  sagacity  by 
enticing  from  the  famous  school  of  York  its  most  dis- 
tinguished ornament,  Alcuin,  to  be  his  trusted  adviser 
and  minister  in  all  that  concerned  the  advancement  of 
learning. 

This  eminent  man,  who  was  reputed  to  be  the  most 
learned  scholar  of  the  8th  century,  was  born  at  York 
about  735  A.  D.,  was  educated  at  the  famous  school 
of  his  native  city,  mastering  all  the  learning  then  cur- 
rent, and  finally  on  the  retirement  of  his  relative  and 


T 


1 


ST.  AlCiUSTlNK,  3:^-1-430 
Si'e.pajre  48 


ST.  .IKKOMK.  :i40/-420 
iS«»e  putje  48 


(. 


ST.  AMliKUSR,  340?-397 
See  ])iiiH'  52 


1       '**_ 


ST.   IfKHNARI),  1091-11.^3 


■-***8S.^^^'^*«'     ■*    ■" 


ST.  FK.\NriS  OK  A.S.S1.SI 
1182-1226 


4 

I 


(75) 


ST.  THOMAS  AC^UINAS,  1225-1274 
See  page  136 


ALCUIN 


77 


» 


teacher  became  head  of  the  school.  In  781,  while  on 
the  return  from  an  honorable  mission  to 'Rome  at 
Parma  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Charlemagne,  who 
in  the  following  year  invited  him  to  his  court  to  become 
his  adviser  in  all  matters  that  concerned  education. 

Whilst  in  learning  Alcuin  undoubtedly  surpassed  all 
His  contemporaries,  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a 
man  of  any  originality  of  genius.     A  devoted  adherent 
of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  and  implicitly  subservient  to 
the  authority  of  the  Latin  fathers,  his  ability  was  dis- 
played chiefly  in  digesting,  classifying,  and  arranging 
the  stores  of  the  past  rather  than  in  striking  out  any 
new  Ideas  of  his  own.     This  kind  of  ability  eminently 
fitted  h>m  as  well  for  his  most  weighty  seVvice  to  the 
future  of  learning  in    the  revision  and  correction  of 
faulty  manuscripts,  as  for  success  in  his  duties  as  a 
teacher.     He  was  besides  endowed  with  a  lively  imagin- 
ation, and  this  he  displayed  in  fanciful  and  often  far- 
fetched analogies  in  his  teaching,  somewhat  after  the 
fashion  of  Origen,  the  influence  of  which  was  apparent 
much  later  in  the  theology  of  the  Medieval  Universities 
In  the  22d  Lecture  of  his  "  History  of  Civilization 
in  trance  ",  Guizot  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the 
services  of  this  distinguished  Englishman  while  at  the 
court  of  Charlemagne.     He  states  as  the  most  impor- 
tant of  Alcuin's  practical  contributions   to  learning 
his  correction  and  restoration  of  the  manuscripts  of 
ancient  literature,  his  agency  in  the  revival  of  public 
schools  and  studies,  and   his  own   personal   work   as 
teacher.     I  quote  from  Ouizot  his  account  of  the  re- 
vision  of  manuscripts,   omitting   only   the   embodied 
capitulary  of  Charlemagne  which  sets  forth  the  need 


78 


THE    NINTH    CENTURY    REVIVAL 


T 


of  this   revision,   and  recommends   its  results  to  all 
ministers  of  religion  throughout  his  realm. 

"  From  the  6th  to  the  8th  century  the  ancient  man- 
uscripts had  gone  through  the  hands  of  copyists  so 
Ignorant  that  the  texts  had  become  altogether  unrecog- 
nizable; infinite  passages  had  been  mutilated  and  mis- 
placed; the  leaves  were  in  the  utmost  disorder;  all 
orthographical  and  grammatical  correctness  had  dis- 
appeared; to   read   and    understand   the    works    thus 
injured  required  absolute  science,  and  of  science  there 
was  less  and  less  every  day.     To  remedy  this  evil,  to 
restore  ancient  manuscripts  to  their  proper  reading  and 
order,  to  correct  their  orthography  and  their  grammar, 
was  one  of  the  first  tasks  to  which  Alcuin  applied  him- 
self; a  task  which  continued  to  occupy  him  throughout 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  which  he  constantly  recom- 
mended to  his  pupils,  and  in  the  fulfilment  of  which 
he  was  supported   by   Charlemagne's  authority.     He 
concluded  it  about  the  year  801,  in  the  abbey  of  St 
Martin  de  Tours,  and  sent  it  to  Charlemagne. 

"  Such  examples  and  such  orders  (as  those  of  Char- 
lemagne), could  not  fail  of  effect,  and  the  ardor  for 
the  reproduction  of  ancient  manuscripts  became  gen- 
eral ;  as  soon  as  an  exact  revision  of  any  work  had 
been  completed  by   Alcuin   or   one   of  his   disciples 
copies  of  it  were  transmitted  to  the  principal  churches 
and  abbeys,  where  fresh  copies  were  made  for  diffusion 
amongst  the  lesser  churches  and  abbeys.     The  art  of 
copying  became   a   source  of  fortune,  of  glory  even- 
the  monasteries  in  which  the  most  correct  and  beauti- 
ful copies  were  executed  attained  celebrity  on  this  sole 
account;  and  in  each.monastery,  the  monks  who  most 


ALCUIN 


79 


i 


t 


excelled  in  the  art  were,  in  like  manner,  honored  among 
their  brethren.-The  monastic  libraries  soon  became 
very  considerable  in  their  extent;  a  great  number  of  ez- 
^ting  manuscripts  date  frcm  this  period;  and  though  its 
zeal  was  more  peculiariy  directed  to  sacred  literature 
profane  literature  was  not  altogether  neglected. " 

It  will  readily  be  seen  from  this  account  that  no 
more  weighty  service  could  have  been  rendered  at  that 
time  to  the  cause  of  learning  which  Chariemagne  had 
80  much  at  heart,  nor  one  which  had  so  great  promise 
of  permanent  benefits.  The  schools  might  fall  into 
neglect  as  many  of  them  in  reality  did  in  the  ages 
succeeding  the  death  of  Chariemagne,  but  the  manu- 
scripts were  likely  to  remain  as  a  treasure-house  of 
learning  to  future  studious  generations. 

In  the  reestablishment  and  spread  of  schools  which 
at  this  time  had  fallen  everywhere  into  decay,  even  in 
those  few  places  where  they  had  eariier  existed,  the 
agency  of  Alcuin  was  so  intimately  connected  with  the 
efforts  of  the  sovereign  whose  minister  he  was,  that  it 
has  already  been  described  in  previous  paragraphs,  and 
needs  httle  farther  notice.     There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  capitularies  respecting  education  owed  their 
iterary  form  to  the  skilful  pen  of  Alcuin;  but  his 
lack  of  originality  and  of  independent  initiative  that 
has  before  been  mentioned,  make  it  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  main  ideas  to  be  conveyed  and  the  meas- 
ures to  be  adopted  originated  with  the  emperor  rather 
than  with  his  minister. 

Alcuin's  services  as  a  teacher  were  probably  limited 
at  first  to  'the  School  of  the  Palace,  which  accom- 
panied Chariemagne  wherever  he  went,  and  at  which 


80 


THE    NIXTH    CEXTURY    REVIVAL 


were  regularly  present  all  those  who  were  with  the 
emperor".  Later  however  his  labors  as  a  teacher 
were  not  confined  within  this  narrow  compass;  for 
Guizot  says  of  him  that  most  of  the  men  who  did 
honor  to  the  great  monastic  schools,  like  those  of 
Fulda,  Reichenau,  and  Fontenelle,  which  now  sprang 
into  celebrity,  "  had  been  disciples  of  Alcuin  himself, 
who,  amid  all  his  avocations,  was  a  public  preacher  and 
a  public  teacher  of  great  distinction.'*  This  was 
especially  true  of  his  last  years,  after  he  had  retired 
from  court  and  assumed  the  duties  of  Abbot  at  St. 
Martin  de  Tours. 

Of  the  form  and  method  of  Alcuin's  instruction  we 
have  some  information  in  his  text-books  for  grammar, 
rhetoric,  etc.,  which  still  exist,  and  in  a  specimen 
leason  which  Guizot  gives  nearly  entire  in  the  22d  lec- 
ture of  his  History  of  Civilization  in  France.  In 
these  his  instruction  has  the  dialogue  or  catechetic 
form,  and  is  strongly  marked  by  that  tendency  to  a 
fanciful  and  allegoric  mode  of  exposition  to  which 
attention  has  been  before  directed.  Alcuic^s  dialogue 
method  of  teaching  grammar,  and  the  entire  meagre, 
authoritative,  and  often  fanciful  instruction  of  the 
Palace  School,  its  marked  lack  of  originality,  and  the 
meagre  second-hand  knowledge  of  Greek  displayed  by 
him,  are  sketched  in  lively  colors  by  Mullinger  in  his 
history  of  the  Schools  of  Charlemagne,  pp.  75-89. 

Yet  some  persons  looking  only  on  the  surface  of 
things  have  been  inclined  to  liken  the  method  of 
Alcuin  to  that  of  Socrates,  and  to  claim  for  him  some- 
thing of  the  merit  of  Socrates.  How  superficial  waa 
the  resemblance  of  the  two  methods,  extending  only 


J 


soCkA TK>.  47t»-:wy.  I!.  < 
See  paifc  HO 


HKDK.  rt73-  7:CS 


PK'l  J.U   Vi;hL.\KI».  HCi*  lUJ 


K*MiKK  i;a<  ON.  i„'n:--iJW: 

S*^  p:tj»»'  133 


LEONARbA  OK  IMSA.  •-; 


FRANCES*  <>  f'FlTRAR*  H    13i>4-1374 
See  pasfe  IflO 


(81) 


ALCUIN 


83 


to  their  catechetic  form,  will  be  readily  apparent  from 
one  of  these  so-called  Socratic  lessons  given  by  Guizot. 

The  interlocutors  are  Pepin,  a  son  of  Charlemagne, 
and  Alcuin,  the  former  of  whom  asks  questions  and 
the  latter  answers. 

P. — What  is  writing  ? 

A. — The  keeper  of  history. 

P. — What  is  speaking  ? 

A. — The  interpreter  of  the  soul. 

P. — What  is  it  gives  birth  to  speaking  ? 

A. — The   tongue. 

P. — What  is  the  tongue  ? 

A. — The  whip  of  the  air. 

P.— What  is  the  air? 

A. — The  preserver  of  life. 

P.— What  is  life  ? 

A.— Happiness  for  the  happy,  misery  for  the  miser- 
able, the  expectation  of  death. 

P.— What  is  death  ? 

A.— An  inevitable  event,  a  doubtful  journey,  a  sub- 
ject of  tears  for  the  living,  the  confirmation  of  wills, 
the  robber  of  men. 

P.— What  is  man  ? 

A. — The  slave  of  death,  a  passing  traveller,  a  guest 
in  his  own  abode. 

P.— What  is  winter  ? 

A.— The  exile  of  spring. 

P. — What  is  spring  ? 

A.  —The  painter  of  the  earth. 

P. — What  is  summer  ? 

A.—The  power  which  clothes  the  earth  and  ripens 
fruits. 


84 


THE    NINTH    CENTURY    REVIVAL 


P. — What  is  autumn  ? 

A. — The  granary  of  the  year. 

P.—What  is  the  year  ? 

A.— The  chariot  of  the  world,  etc. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  these  fanciful  and  far- 
fetched analogies  given  in  answer  to  the  eager  ques- 
tions of  a  mere  school  boy,  or  the  other  portions  of 
the  same  dialogue  in  which  Alcuin,  becoming  ques- 
tioner, proposes  riddles  for  the  prince  to  guess,  bear  no 
resemblance  whatever  to  the  searching  dialectic  method 
of  the  Grecian  sage,  whereby  he  exposed  pretentious 
error  to  itself,  or  pushed  some  vaguely  apprehended 
truth  to  its  necessary  consequences.     Indeed,  if    we 
are  to  consider  them  as  anything  more  serious  than  a 
mere  pastime,  intended  as  an  amusement  of  a  leisure 
hour,  we  should  doubtless  say  with  Guizot  that  ''  as  a 
means  of  education,  these  conversations  are  altogether 
and  strangely  puerile,''  and  that  ''  if  the  influence  of 
Alcuin  had  been  confined  within   the    walls   of    this 
academy,  it  would  have  elfected  little  worthy  of  our 
notice." 

This  can,  however,  be  no  fair  specimen  of  his  in- 
struction  given  at  the  abbey  of  St.  Martin  de  Tours, 
where  he  spent,  chiefly  in  teaching,  the  closing  years 
of  his  life.  These  lessons  were  addressed  to  disciples 
who  were  more  thoroughly  trained  than  the  retainers 
of  the  court,  and  who  had  an  object  deeper  than  the 
qualification  of  a  vague  half-barbarian  curiosity.  Gui- 
zot has  however  given  us  no  specimens  of  Alcuin's 
procedure  with  the  distinguished  disciples  like  Ra- 
banus  Maurus  who  went  forth  from  his  lessons  to  shed 
lustre  by  their  educational  efforts  on  the  age  in  which 


t- 


L 


ALCUIN 


85 


they  lived.  Probably  no  record  of  such  lessons  exists ; 
but  It  18  certain  that  the  specimens  we  have  received 
have  in  them  nothing  of  the  method  or  the  spirit  of 
Socrates. 

In  796  Alcuin  assumed  his  duties  as  abbot  of  St. 
Martin,  and  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  were  spent 
in  the  management  of  the  large  interests  of  his  monas- 
tery, in  teaching  theology  to  the  group  of  eager  and 
promising  young  men  who  were  drawn  together  by  his 
great  reputation,  and  in  an  active  correspondence, 
largely  on  educational  matters,  with  his  former  pupils 
and  with  the  emperor. 

This  seemingly  calm  period  of  repose  after  a  useful 
career,  was,  however,  not   free   from   vexations.     He 
was  evidently  deeply  moved  by  the  favor  with  which 
Clement,  an  Irish  scholar,  was  received  at  court,  ap- 
prehending an    influence  subversive  of    some   of  his 
cherished  ideas  from  the  introduction  of  a  type  of 
scholarship  in  many  respects  unlike  his  own.     For  the 
Irish  scholars  of  that  age  were  skilled  in  Greek,  in 
which  Alcuin's  attainments  were  very  slender;   they 
had  a  great  regard  for  the  Greek  fathers  and  for  Mar- 
tianus  Capella,  both  of  whom  Alcuin  as  an  adherent  of 
extreme  Romish  ideas  persistently  ignored;  and  they 
were  besides  unusually  proficient  in  astronomy,  which 
made  them  formidable  adversaries  of  the  side  favored 
by  Alcuin  in  a  vivid  controversy  waged  at  that  time 
about  the  right  date  of  Easter. 

The  eager  and  inquiring  spirit  of  the  emperor  soon 
showed  the  effects  of  novel  views,  and  he  distressed 
his  old  friend  by  frequent  doubts  of  the  validity  of 
his  former  teachings,  presented  in  the  form  of  ques- 


86 


THE   NINTH    CENTURY    REVIVAL 


tions  to  be  solved,— truly  a  distressful  position  for  an 
authority   hitherto   dounted   omniscient.     The   death 
of  Alcuin,  which  occurred  in  804  in  his  70th  year,  is 
attributed  by  some  authors  to  his  grief  and  mortifica- 
tion at  a  reproof  of  Charles  on  a  perhaps  injudicious 
use  in  a  broil  of  his  authority  as  abbot. 
1  The  liability  to  overestimate  the  extent  and  depth  of 
the  education  given,  which  is  everywhere  great  during 
mediaeval  times,  is  especially  great  in  the  early  period 
that  we  have  been  considering;  for  it  is  easy  to  give  a 
considerable  list  of  monasteries  and  cathedral  schools 
which  gained  fame,  and  yet  which  were  dotted  over 
vast  spaces  of  territory  and  were  often  separated  some- 
what  widely  in  time— space  and  time  estimates  are  apt 
to  lose  some  of  their  importance  when  they  relate  to 
remote  periods;  so  too  it  is  easy  to  make  a  respectable 
enumeration  of  studies  pursued,  some  here  and  some 
occasionally  there,  and  from  data  of  this  vague  char- 
acter, without  a  rigid  scrutiny  as  to  how  much  knowl- 
edge was  really  implied    under  some  large  sounding 
title,  it  is  easy  to  infer  that  the  benefits  of  education 
were  more  widely  available  and  more  generally  enjoyed 
than  they  really  were.      Yet  from  what  has  been  said 
m  the  preceding  pages  we  may,  I  think,  safely  concede 
that  the    movement    initiated   by    Charlemagne   and 
inspired   by  his  efforts  deserved  the  lofty  title  of  the 
First  Renaissance  which  has  sometimes  been  given  to 
it;  although  unhappily,  from  the  disorders  of  times 
which  succeeded  his  death,  this  movement  met  with 
a  serious  check. 

Louis  the  Debonnaire,  the  first  heir  to  the  empire, 
distinguished- not  more  for  his  ascetic  piety  than  for 


JOHN   SCOTUS   ERIGINA 


87 


his  misfortunes  resulting  from  feebleness  of  will,  strove 
to  continue  the  policy  which  his  great  father  had  in- 
itiated.    During  his  troubled  reign,  Rabanus  Maurus, 
a  pupil  of  Alcuin  and  graced  with  the  proud  but  well- 
deserved    title   ''  Preceptor    Germanise  ",    raised   the 
school  of  Fulda  to  a  widely-recognized  pre  eminence;- 
wrote  pedagogic  works  distinguished  rather  for  good 
sense  and  clearness  of  presentation  than  for  any  origin- 
ality of  view,  which  have   recently  been  found  worthy 
to  be  presented  in  a  German  dress;  and  later  as  arch- 
bishop of  Mainz  insisted  that  the  clergy  of  his  diocese 
should  preach  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  ''  that  the  com- 
mon  people   might  be   confirmed    in    their  faith  and 
improved  in  their  morals." 

Under  the  favoring  care  of  Charles  the  Bald,  son 
of  Louis,  who  in  the  division  of  the  empire  inherited 
the  kingdom  of  France,  the  intellectual  movement 
still  retained  some  vigor,  its  most  distinguished  repre- 
sentatives being  Lupus  Servatus  and  John  Scotus 
Erigena. 

The  former,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Rabanus  Maurus 
and  abbot  of  Ferrieres  during  the  times  of  the  incur- 
sions of  the  Northmen,  was  held  in  the  highest  repute 
for  his  character,  his  diplomatic  ability,  and  above  all 
for  his  learning  and  for  the  distinguished  support 
which  he  gave  to  classic  studies  during  the  decay  of 
learning  that  followed  the  breaking  up  of  the  empire. 

Scotus  Erigena,  as  his  name  indicates,  was  an  Irish 
scholar  of  even  more  than  the  usual  Irish  independ- 
ence of  opinion.  He  asserted  the  claims  of  classic 
literature,  and  gave  such  prominence  to  the  philosophy 
of  Plato  and  Aristotle  as  to  attract  to  it  and  to  him- 


88 


THE   mNTB.   CENTURY    REVIVAL 


ALFRED   THE   GREAT 


self  a  bitter  clerical  hostility.     He  filled  the  measure 
of  his  demerits   when   invited  by  Bishop  Hincmar  to 
enter  the  lists  in  one  of  the  trivial  religious  contro- 
versies which  were  then  so  bitterly  waged;  for  he  not 
only  dared  to  assert  the  claims  of  reason  over  mere 
unsupported  authority,  but  he  also  used  and  defended 
the  use  of  a  dialectical  method  of  treatment  which 
was  still  discountenanced  by  the  church,  thus  becom- 
ing from  afar  the  forerunner  of  the  later   scholastic 
method,    though  without    its   servility  to   authority. 
On  th.8  account  his  brilliant  career  ended  in  obscurity 
though  It  has  been  asserted  on  somewhat  doubtful  au- 
thority that  he  was  later  active  at  the  court  of  Alfred 
the  Great. 

In  the  succeeding  period  learning  so  far  retrograded 
m  Western  Europe  that  the  10th  and  11th  centuries 

T  'r!'.,""'^  ^^  '"""^  ^"'^•"•«  ^^^  'ia'-kest  period  of 
he  Middle  Ages.     Yet  I  am  disposed  to  think  that 
the  impulse  given  to  mind  by  Charlemagne  never  wholly 
ceased;  that  many  of  the  schools  which  he  established 
continued,  though  obscurely,  to  do  their  work,  that  in 
the  words  of  Hallam  *"  France  seems  to  have  been 
uniformly   though   very   slowly   progressive  from  the 
time  of  Charlemagne;"    that  it  would  even  be  not 
impossible  to  construct  a  nearly  unbroken  succession 
of  teachers  of  some  note  from  Alcuin  to  William  of 
Chanipeaux  and   Abelard,  as  Mulliager  has   donet; 
and  that,  though  the  movement  of  mind  took  a  new 
form  and   passed   into   other  and    ruder   hands  than 
those  of  the  learned  class,  it  was  still  doing  its  work 

*  Middle  Ages,  C.  IX.  p.  40U.  ' 

tOp.  Cit..  final  chapter.o 


89 


♦ 


) 


[^ 


of  preparing  the  way  for  the  12th  century  Renaissance. 
But  while  the  torch  of  learning  on  the  continent  of 
Europe  seemed  about  to  be  extinguished,  it  was 
grasped  and  borne  aloft  for  a  time  by  the  English 
Alfred,  who  became  the  representative  of  the  Eirst 
Renaissance  during  the  last  decades  of  the  9th  century. 
The  condition  in  which  he  found  learning  in  the  south 
west  part  of  England  over  which  he  ruled,  and  which, 
according  to  Ilallam,  was  then  the  most  enlightened 
portion  of  the  island,  has  already  been  mentioned;— 
he  knew  not  a  single  clergyman  south  of  the  Thames 
who  understood  the  ordinary  prayers  or  could  translate 
them  into  English,  having  merely  memorized  them  as 
a  formula  to  be  used  in  the  church  service.  If  such 
was  the  condition  of  the  class  nominally  learned,  what 
could;,be  lookedjfor^from  the  laity! 

Against  the  prevailing  ignorance  this  energetic  king 
made  a  valiant  struggle  during  the  last  two  decades  of 
his  reign,  **  intent  to  leave  to  the  men  that  came  after 
him  a  remembrance  of  himself  in  good  works."     Like 
Charlemagne  he  had  a  keen  judgment  of  the  merits 
of  men;  and,  since  learning   was  at  so  low  an  ebb  in  ' 
his  own  realm,  he  summoned  from  abroad  men  like 
Grimbald  and  the  Welch  Asser,  whom  he  placed  at  th^, 
head  of  monasteries  to  instruct  his  clergy.     ''  He  him-^' 
self  superintended  a  school  which  he  had  established 
for  the  young  nobles  of  his  court,"  after  the  manner 
of  Charlemagne. 

Like  Charlemagne  also  he  saw  the  vital  necessity,  if 
learning  and  religion  were  to  obtain  any  organic  hold 
upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  that  both  learning  and 
religion   should    be   presented   to   them  in  their  own 


90 


THE    NINTH   CENTURY    REVIVAL 


} 


nahve  tongue      "  Let  us  endeavor,"  he  Bays,  "  that 
all  the  English  youth,  especially  the  children  of  those 

read   Enghsh  before  they  take  to   any  employment. 
Afterwards  such  as  please  may  learn  Latin  "* 

To  accomplish  this  end,  the  king  himself  was  forced 
virtually  to  create  a  vernacular  prose  literature,  which 
A  i  ^y ^'^""'^^^^^g  "^OTka  like  the  History  of  Bede 
and  the   Consolations  of  Boethius.     These  "works  he 
enriched  by  remarks  and  additions  of  his  own.     Hav- 
ing thus  brought  the  means  of  learning  within  the 
easy  reach  of  his  people,  it  is  said,  I  know  not  w  t h 
how  much  truth,  that  he  required  such  magistrates  as 
were  unable  to  read  to  remedy  their  deficie'n        : 
give  place  to  more  learned  men. 

Under  the  fostering    care  of    Alfred    the  English,' 
monasteries  became  again  nurseries  of  learning  and  not 
a  few  schools  were  opened.     It  has  even  been  claimed 
but  with  httle  show  of  credibility,  that  the  univers  t? 
of  Oxford  grew  out  of  a  school  founded  by  Alfred. 

But  the  impulse  given  by  him,  vigorous  though  it 
was,  must  have  been  evanescent;  for  in  the  time^ 
Dunstan  primate  of  England  towards  the  close  of  the 
century  ,„  ,hich  Alfred  died,  Hallam  says  that  n  n 
of  the  clergy  knew  how  to  write  or  translate  a  LatL 
letter;  and  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  conquest  tte 
Enghsh  are  described  as  "  rude  and  almost  illUerl  '' 
aoubtless  as  a  consequeuce  of  thp  Dar.;.!,  •  ' 

erature  as  well  as  laws  was  forced  to  silence. 

*  Hallam,  Middle  \^h«      r-   t  v         7"I      .  

Spelman-Vita  Alfred.'  '  ^^^  ''^  ^^^^  "^'e  to  page  460.  quoted  from 


A    SCHOOL   OK    .MKNDICANT    MoNKS.     ( From  fuhlxTl.-vs  Syllabus  of 
Kduoaliou.  after  a  iiiiiiialure  of  th«'  15tli  cvniu'v     in  th«'  IUir;,'uudy 

library.  Hrussels) 

(91) 


( 


CHAPTER   lY 

THE    RELAPSE    OF    THE    TENTH    AND    ELEVENTH    CEN- 
TURIES,    AND    CAUSES    OF    THE    TWELFTH    CEN- 
TURY   RENAISSANCE 

The  first  revival  of  learning  in  the  ninth  century 
was  succeeded  by  nearly  two  centuries  of  educational 
lethargy  and  ignorance.  Learning  sank  again  into 
neglect,  and  whatever  of  it  survived  seems  to  have 
resumed  an  ecclesiastical  character.  The  episcopal 
schools  in  some  places  still  continued;  the  Benedictine 
monasteries  still  taught  the  few  who  resorted  to  them ; 
save  perhaps  in  a  few  monasteries,  like  those  of  Paris 
and  Rheims,  Orleans  and  Erfurt,  the  staple  of  instruc- 
tion in  both  these  classes  of  schools  was,  besides  relig- 
ion, the  dryest  and  most  barren  parts  of  the  trivium 
and  quadrivium,  presented  in  barbarous  Latin  and  im- 
pressed upon  the  memory  by  a  free  use  of  the  rod. 

The  good  old  times  of  ignorance  returned.  Says 
Hallam,  *'  In  almost  every  council,  the  ignorance  of 
the  clergy  forms  a  subject  of  reproach.  It  was  asserted 
in  one  held  in  992,  that  scarcely  a  person  was  to  be 
found  in  Rome  itself  who  knew  the  first  elements  of 
letters."  Laurie  says,  "  King,  baron,  and  knight, 
had  a  contempt  for  those  who  professed  even  an  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  letters."  It  was  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eleventh  century  that  the  already  quoted 
assertion  was  made  by  a  high  church  dignity  that  some 

(93) 


94 


TENTH  CENTURY  RELAPSE 


CHIVALRY 


95 


of   his  fellow  archbishops  did    not    know    even    the 
alphabet. 

In  an  autobiographical  narration  of  Guibert  de  No- 
gent,  quoted  by   Guizot,*  we  have  a  vivid  picture  of 
the  extreme  difficulties  encountered  even  by  a  young 
noble,  in  the  last  half  of  the  eleventh  century,  in  his 
attempts  to  acquire  a  tolerable  education  to  fit  him  for 
the  priesthood,  as  well  as  of  the  exceeding  incompe- 
tency and  brutal  methods  of  such  teachers  as  were  to 
be  had.     There  was  he  says,  ''  so  great  a  scarcity  of 
masters  of  grammar  that,  so  to  speak,  scarce  one  was 
to  be  seen  in  the  country,  and  hardly  could  they  be 
found  in  the  great  towns.     He  to  whom  my  mother 
resolved  to  confide    me    had    learned  grammar  in  a 
rather  advanced  age,  and  was  so  much  the  less  familiar 
with  this  science,  as  he  had  devoted  himself  to  it  at  a 
later  period;  but   what  he  wanted   in  knowledge,  he 
made  up  for   in  virtue.     My  master,  altogether  un- 
skilful at  reciting  verses  or  composing  them  according 
to  rule,  almost  every  day  loaded  me  with  a  shower  of 
cuffs  and  blows,  to  force  me  to  know  what  he  himself 
was  unable  to  teach  me."     He  speaks  of  being  beaten 
until   his   arms    were   all    black   and  the  skin   of  his 
shoulders  all  raised  up  and  swollen  with  the  blows  he 
had  received;  yet  such  was  his  ardor  for  learning  that 
when  his  mother  would  have  interfered,  and  have  had 
him  desist  from  an  effort  attended  with  such  barbar- 
ous treatment,  he  said  to  her  *'  I  would  rather  die  than 
cease  learning  letters  and  wishing  to  be  a  priest." 

The  most  favorable  thing  that  can  be  said  of  this 
barren  period  is  that  in  it  the  germs  of  a  taste  for  art 

•  History  of  Civilization,  vol.  3d,  p.  94. 


appear  to  have  developed  somewhat  obscurely.  Church 
music,  in  which  the  Gregorian  tones  had  now  been 
added  to  the  original  music  of  St.  Ambrose,  was  cul- 
tivated with  some  success,  and  with  a  progress  towards 
an  art  of  music.  Fine  penmanship  and  the  illumina- 
tion of  manuscripts  were  considerably  practised. 
Carving  and  painting,  and  the  art  of  arts,  architect- 
ure, were  preparing  the  way  for  the  artistic  triumphs 
of  succeeding  ages. 

The  first  introduction  of  the  Arabic  figures  into 
Christian  Europe  is  assigned  to  this  period,  though 
they  were  little  known  and  less  used  until  some  cen- 
turies later.  This  introduction  is  ascribed  to  Gerbert, 
then  a  teacher  in  the  school  at  Rheims,  but  who  in 
999  became  Pope  Sylvester  II.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
some  knowledge  of  them  was  not  possessed  by  a  few 
learned  men  at  an  earlier  period,  but  it  seems  certain 
from  Weissenborn's  wearisomely  learned  treatise  on  the 
introduction  into  Europe  of  our  present  figures,  that 
neither  Gerbert  nor  those  succeeding  him  for  several 
generations  had  any  knowledge  of  the  use  of  the  cipher, 
and  hence  that  they  were  ignorant  of  the  decimal 
notation.* 

1.   Chivalry 

But  while,  as  we  have  just  seen,  the  means  of  intel- 
lectual education  during  the  10th  and  11th  centuries, 
were  sinking  again  into  disuse,  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  liberal  arts  was  neglected  and  even  despised,  a  new 
educational  agency  was  rising  into  prominence,  which 
having  its  obscure  origin  in  early  times  and  old  Ger- 
manic customs,  now  manifested  itself    in  an  altered 

♦See  Weissenborn.  Eiuftlhrung  der  Jetzigen  Ziffern  in  Europa 


96 


CHIVALRY 


and  more  brilliant  form  as  an  educative  and  civilizing 
force,  in  the  effects  which  it  produced  on  morals  and 
manners.  This  agency  was  the  institution  of  chiv- 
alry; an  agency  the  more  potent,  because,  growing 
out  of  the  circumstances  of  the  times  and  adapting 
itself  to  the  modes  of  thinking  and  feeling  of  the  age, 
it  worked  its  way  silently  among  men,  and  ere  they 
were  aware  had  wrought  a  great  amelioration  in  the 
manners  of  a  rude  age. 

The  liberal  art^  had  thus  far  proved  themselves  an 
extrinsic  agency,  striving  for  influence  among  men  by 
no  means  prepared  by  previous  experience  to  receive 
them  or  to  appreciate  their  benefits.  This  new  educa- 
tional force,  by  appealing  to  motives  to  which  men 
were  at  that  time  keenly  alive,  as  well  through  the 
changes  wrought  by  itself  as  by  other  influences  which 
it  brought  in  its  train,  prepared  the  minds  of  men  for 
that  period  of  eager  intellectual  activity  which  began 
with  the  12th  century,  and  made  them  in  some  degree 
receptive  for  that  literary  culture  to  which  they  had 
hitherto  been  averse. 

^  Hallam  has  said  not  more  beautifully  than  truth- 
fully, ''  There  are,  if  I  may  so  say,  three  powerful 
spirits  which  have  from  time  to  time  moved  over  the 
face  of  the  waters,  and  given  a  predominant  impulse 
to  the  moral  sentiments  and  energies  of  mankind. 
These  are  the  spirits  of  liberty,  of  religion,  and  of 
honor.  It  was  the  principal  business  of  chivalry  to 
animate  and  cherish  the  last  of  these  three." 

In  this  time  real  liberty  as  a  worid  spirit  did  not 
exist,  for  violence  and  disorder  reigned;  the  strong 
trampled  on  the  rights  of   the  weak,  and  wrenched 


THE   SPIRIT   OF    HONOR 


97 


from  each  other  what  the  mailed  hand  was  not  able  to 
defend,  and  the  idea  of  settled  order  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  definite  laws,  without  which  there  can  be  no 
individual  liberty,  had  not  yet  been  clearly  appre- 
hended bv  men. 

The  case  was  not  much  better  with  religion,  the 
second  of  these  great  controlling  spirits;  for  religion 
had  largely  become  dogma — dogma  too  which  was 
rather  accepted  than  understood,  embodied  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  and  exercising  too  little  influence  on 
the  lives  of  those  who  professed  to  believe  it;  only  too 
inoperative  on  the  actions  of  those  who  taught  it. 

But  amongst  the  stronger  class,  the  feudal  lords, 
the  feeling  of  personal  importance,  the  germ  of  honor, 
was  vigorously  active.  This  spirit  of  honor  the  in- 
stitution of  chivalry  which  now  became  prominent 
made  its  cardinal  principle,  and  developed  it  ultimately 
to  those  extravagant  and  even  fantastic  forms  to  which, 
in  a  later  age,  the  author  of  Don  Quixote  directed  a 
well-merited  ridicule.  In  the  period  that  we  are  con- 
sidering, however,  it  was  doubtless  the  best  and  most 
effective  school  of  moral  discipline  that  the  age  afforded. 

If  we  read  with  attention  the  oaths  of  chivalry  in 
their  developed  form,  which  may  be  found  in  Guizot's 
History  of  Civilization,  Vol.  3,  Lecture  6th,  we  shall 
find  in  them,  exacted  from  the  candidate  for  knight- 
hood, an  observance  of  a  code  of  moral  and  social 
virtues  of  which  those  times  of  lawless  violence  stood 
in  the  deepest  need.  We  here  see  that,  besides  per- 
sonal courage,  which  was  of  the  very  essence  of  honor, 
what  are  most  strongly  emphasized  as  the  vitally  essen- 
tial characteristics  of  the  chivalrous  knight,  are  the 


98 


CHIVALRY 


r 
i 


virtues   of  loyalty,   courtesy,  liberality,   justice,  and 
respect  for  women— loyalty  which  extended  not  merely 
to  one's  relatives,  to  friends,  or  to  superiors,  but  which 
made  one's  word  pledged  either  to  friends  or  foes,  a 
sacred  obligation  and  stamped  a  breach  of  faith  as  in- 
famous; courtesy  which   powerfully   ameliorated    the 
forms  of  intercourse  among  rude  men,  and  lent  a  tone 
of  refinement  even   to  hostile  encounters;    liberality 
which  easily  degenerated  into  extravagance  and  waste- 
fulness, but  which  nourished  the   feeling  of  honor  by 
seeming  to  free  valiant  acts  from  any  taint  of  avar- 
icious  self-seeking;    justice   which    bound    the    true 
knight,   not  only  to  upright  dealing  with   all    men, 
but  to  become  the  defender  of  the  weak  and  helpless 
when  oppressed  by  power;    and  a  respect  for  women 
which  expressed  itself    often  in  fantastic  ways,    and 
which  degenerated  too  readily  into  licentious  gallantry, 
but  which  elevated  the  best  and  purest  of  the  female  sex 
to  an  importance  that  had  never  before  been  accorded 
to  them. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  by  fumiliarizing  men's 
minds  with  the  ideas  as  estimable  and  desirable  of  such 
moral  qualities  as  justice,  loyalty,  good  faith,  stead- 
fastness, and  regard  for  the  helpless,  and  of  such  social 
virtues  as  courtesy  to  equals  and  reverence  for  women 
and  for  superiors,  chivalry  was  fitted  to  become  an 
effective  promoter  of  morals  and  civilization;  and  that 
although  all  these  virtues  were  doubtless  at  first  im- 
perfectly embodied  in  practice,  they  were  likely  still 
to  have  a  powerful  influence  on  the  development  of 
a  higher  type  of  general  character.  How  many  of  us, 
it  may  be  asked,  even  in  this  enlightened  age,  com'- 


CASTLE   SCHOOLS 


99 


I 


t 


pletely  exemplify  in  our  lives  the  principles  that  we 
profess  and  even  reverence  ?  Thus  the  virtues  which 
chivalry  exalted  and  on  which  it  founded  an  order  of 
personal  nobility,  even  though  incompletely  practised, 
as  from  human  frailty  virtues  are  sure  to  be,  slowly 
permeated  mediaeval  society;  and,  by  softening  rude 
manners  and  laying  the  foundations  of  order  and  of 
law,  aided  in  preparing  the  minds  of  men  for  the  re- 
ception of  literary  culture. 

To  this  also  a  strong  re-enforcement  was  given  by 
the  springing  up  of  chivalric  poetry,  which  added  its 
praises  to  chivalric  virtues,  and  graced  with  the  charms 
of  verse  the  heroic  deeds  inspired  by  those  virtues; 
and  which  thus,  while  extending  the  influence  of 
chivalry,  gradually  turned  the  minds  of  men  in  the 
direction  of  literature.  Men  who  had  come  to  enjoy 
the  lays  of  the  Troubadours  and  Minnesingers,  were 
more  likely  to  relish  the  poems  of  Homer  and  Virgil 
and  Ovid. 

But  chivalry  needed  schools  in  which  its  virtues 
should  be  inculcated,  its  exercises  made  familiar,  and 
its  special  culture  promoted — for  it  had  a  culture  of 
its  own.  Such  schools,  the  Castle  schools,  sprang  up 
soon  after  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  taking  their  rise 
in  the  interior  of  castles  as  **  a  spontaneous  outgrowth 
of  feudal  manners."  The  sons  of  vassals  were  sent 
to  the  castle  of  the  Suzerain  or  great  feudal  lord  to  be 
brought  up  and  trained  in  company  with  his  sons;  and 
thus,  while  being  effective  pledges  for  the  loyalty  of 
their  fathers,  they  became  familiar  with  the  life  of  the 
castle,  its  principles,  and  its  usages;  they  passed 
through  all  its  grades  of  service  as  pages  and  esquires; 


100 


CHIVALRY 


and  finally  when  deemed  ripe  were  admitted  to  the 
ranks  of  knights  at  the  hands  of  their  lord. 

In  this  school  were  impressed  by  example  and  per- 
sistent practice  those  virtues  which  were  considered 
essential  to  the  character  of  the  good  and  valiant 
knight.  Here  was  imparted  the  special  semi-literary 
culture  of  the  castle,  poetry  and  the  art  of  verse- 
making,  familiarity  with  heroic  and  sacred  legends, 
skill  in  playing  chess  and  in  touching  the  lute,  the  art 
of  carving  skilfully  at  table,  and  the  courteous  man- 
ners which  befitted  the  knightly  dignity.  The  largest 
part  in  this  castle  education,  however,  was  naturally 
devoted  to  perfecting  the  youths  in  all  knightly  exer- 
cises. Thus  that  physical  education  and  that  care 
for  the  body  and  its  capabilities,  which  the  ascetic 
spirit  of  earlier  times  had  so  neglected  and  contemned, 
and  which  it  still  continued  to  despise  as  unworthy  of 
a  spiritual  being,  the  destined  heir  of  immortality, 
was  revived  in  the  castle  schools  and  never  again  fell 
into  entire  neglect. 

Karl  Schmidt  intimates  a  belief  that  the  young  can- 
didates for  knighthood  received  also  the  elements  of 
a  scholastic  education  in  the  monasteries.  This  idea 
seems  to  me  in  a  high  degree  impossible.  If  we  recall 
to  mind  the  account,  given  by  Guibert  de  Nogent  and 
already  quoted  (page  94)  of  the  exceeding  difficulty 
in  finding  any  means  of  instruction  encountered  near 
the  close  of  this  period  by  a  young  noble  who  ardently 
desired  learning,  that  he  might  become  a  priest,  it  will 
probably  be  conceded  that  there  was  little  likely  to  be 
any  culture  of  this  kind  among  the  mass  of  young 
men  who  were  in  training  for  a  purely  martial  career 


INITiATlUN  INTO  Til K  OHDKK  OF  KNUiHTHOOD.     (From  Cassell's 

History  of  Fniilund,  \.l'.Vi) 


(101) 


DEVELOPMENT   OF    INDIVIDUALITY 


103 


and  who  lived  in  a  society  where  learning  was  disre- 
garded if  not  contemned.  We  should  also,  in  forming 
an  opinion  on  this  matter,  take  into  account  the  pre- 
vailing lawlessness  of  this  age,  and  the  fact  that  dur- 
ing a  considerable  part  of  it  all  warlike  and  religious 
interests  were  absorbed  in  the  crusades.  With  all  this 
in  view,  it  will  be  easy  to  admit  that  the  humbler  our 
estimate  of  the  extension  of  literary  learning  among 
the  nobility  during  the  10th  and  11th  centuries,  the 
nearer  it  will  be  likely  to  accord  with  truth. 

We  ought  not  to  take  leave  of  chivalric  education 
and  of  the  better  and  more  civilized  spirit  which  it  was 
slowly  making  influential  among  men,  without  empha- 
sizing a  characteristic  which  has  not  yet  been  men- 
tioned, but  in  virtue  of  which  it  approximated,  re- 
motely indeed  yet  obviously,  to  the  Christian  humani- 
tarian ideal.  What  I  allude  to  is  the  fact  that  not 
only  was  the  powerful  world  spirit  which  animated 
chivalry  the  spirit  of  honor,  but  it  was  the  spirit  of 
individual,  of  personal,  of  independent  honor.  Dur- 
ing the  time  of  the  crusades  it  gained  its  fullest  ex- 
pression, in  making  of  the  knights  an  order  of  per- 
sonal nobility,  whose  rights  and  whose  elevation  were 
everywhere  recognized.  The  knight  went  into  battle 
or  undertook  perilous  adventures  with  the  proud  con- 
sciousness that  he  was  not  an  undistinguishable  atom 
in  a  mass,  but  an  important  personality,  whose  deeds, 
if  worthy,  would  be  noted  and  mayhap  sung,  and 
would  redound  to  the  increase  of  the  honor  in  which 
he  was  held. 

It  seems  not  unnatural  to  fancy  that  this  feeling  of 
individuality,  a  relic   of  the  old  Germanic   spirit   of 


^'^■&A^&^^S»i^^^iil&!^iA^iU: 


104 


GROWTH    OF   2dLxMCIPALITIES 


independence  which  Tacitus  records,  and  which  was 
pushed  to  an  extreme  in  feudal  society  and  in  chivalry, 
was  the  natural  reaction  against  the  spirit  of  national- 
ism which  had  ruled  the  ancient  world,  and  that  it 
paved  the  way  for  the  acceptance  in  much  later  times 
of  the  humanitarian  ideal  long  latent  in  Christianity. 
Thus  the  excess  of  individuality  neutralized  the  exces- 
sive  spirit  of  nationalism,  and  prepared  for  the  nobler 
ideal  which  should  harmonize  the  two,  being  trans- 
formed into  freedom  and  patriotism. 

2.    Growth  of  Municipalities 

During  the   latter  part  of  the  period  we  are  now 
considering,  municipalities  begin  to  emerge  from  the 
confusion,  and  to  claim  an  increasing  importance.     In 
France,  where  they  gained  influence  considerably  earlier 
than  in   Germany,  they  had,  according  to  Guizot    a 
threefold  origin.     In  some  cases  they  were  the  obscure 
survivals  of  old  Roman  municipalities.     In  others  like 
Orleans,  they  were  cities  which  had  been  nourished 
and  encouraged  by  the  grant  of  special  privileges  and 
by  freedom  from  arbitrary  exactions,  whether  in  con- 
sideration of  money  payments  or  through  a  more  than 
usually  wise  policy  of   their  feudal  lords,  who  found 
their  own  importance  increased  and  their  needs  sub- 
served by  the  existence  within  their  domains  of  settled 
industries  and  a  growing  trade.     The  third  class  in- 
eluded  towns  whose  citizens,  wearied  by  the  tyranny 
and   robberies  of  their  rude  masters,   had   wrenched 
from  them  by  force  of  arms  certain  chartered  rights  in 
virtue   of   which    they   managed    their    own   internal 


TOWN   SCHOOLS 


105 


affairs,  and  stood  ready  to  maintain  their  own  interests 
by  a  military  organization  of  their  citizens. 

In  all  of  these  municipalities,  with  the  attainment 
of  a  measure  of  security,  industries  began  to  spring  up 
and  trade  to  appear,  both  of  which  demanded  some 
means  of  education  for  boys  that  they  might  be  fitted 
to  pursue  with  greater  success  the  avocations  of  their 
fathers.  Hence  town  schools  began  to  appear,  in 
which  were  taught  such  elements  as  reading,  writing, 
simple  reckoning,  and  in  some  cases  a  little  geography! 
The  teachers  were  undoubtedly  clerics. 

The  language  that  was  used  in   these  early  town 
schools  is  said  to  have  been  the  vernacular,  as  would 
seem  necessary  that  they  might  subserve  their  purpose 
of  supplying  the  pressing  needs  of  trade  and  indus- 
tries.    In  England,  however,  in  the  12th  century,  the 
schools  of  London  used  Latin  as  the  vehicle  of  instruc- 
tion, and  the  boys  seem  to  have  been  fitted  for  their 
business  careers  by  engaging  in  hair-splitting  disputes 
about  ablatives  and  gerunds.     In   Germany  also,  the 
citizen  schools  which  arose  in  the  12th  and   13th  cen- 
turies were  Latin  schools,  to  which  were  attached  as 
preparatory  schools  the  so-called  *'  writing  schools  ", 
genuine  schools  of  the  vernacular,  in  which  were  taught 
reading,  writing,  and  reckoning  as  a  preparation  for 
trades.     In  the  Latin  school,  Latin  naturally  reigned 
supreme,  associated    with    religion,  and   the   method 
of  disputation,  borrowed  from  the  Scholastics,  had  a 
paramount  place.     Their  privileges,  however,  such  as 
they  were,  were  open  without  cost  to  the  poor  as  well 
as  to  the  rich.     These  last  named  schools  belonged  to 
a  somewhat  later  period  than  the  10th  and  11th  cen- 


106 


THE   SCHOLASTIC   RENAISSANCK 


turies,  to  which  for  the  eake  of  clearness  I  have  de- 
sired >n  this  chapter  to  confine  our  attention.*    It  has 
however  seemed  most  convenient  to  mention  them  here. 
The  period  to  which  attention  has  here  been  briefly 
directed,  was  apparently  barren  of  interest  from  an 
educational    point   of   view;   and   yet   the   two   facts 
which  we  have  gust  been  considering,  chivalry  and  the 
rise  of  municipalities,  were  amongst  the  mos't  import- 
ant   preparations    for  the    extraordinary  intellectual 
movement  which  the  12th  century  ushered!!,    and 

the  bchola  tic  Eenaissance,  the  second  renaissance,  if 
we  account  the  revival  of  schools  under  Charlemagne 
and  Alfred  as  the  first,  as  I  think  we  properly  may' 

This  Renaissance  was  characterized  by  a  remark- 
able and  wide-spread  intellectual  activity,  which,  be- 
gmning  outside  the  ranks  of  the  regular  dergy,  ^re  - 
ently  swept  them  also  into  its  vortex;  and  which 
although  ,t  took  a  peculiar  form  and  expended  itself 
in  seemingly  barren  efforts,  was  yet  marked  by  an 
energy  of  intellectual  life  that  was  full  of  promise  for 
the  future,  whenever  better  means  of  culture  should 

n  cLlir,;     /"  ''I  "^"  ^'"^■"^^-     ''  -«  "-Je  es- 
pecially illus  nous  by  the  origin  of  many  still  famous 

universities,  hke  those  of  Bologna,  Oxford,  and  Cam- 
bridge, fo  lowed  by  such  great  German  universitieHs 
Prague   Vienna,  Heidelberg,  and  Leipsic  at  a  some 
what  later  date. 

Like  all  great  historic  movements,  this  intellectual 

With  the  earlie..  u.,,.r!^t.  g    Bolo,'.     '"•    "'  '""""""^  "'•"»" 


GUILDS 


107 


( 


^ 


revolution  had  its   forerunners  and  efficient   causes. 
Two  of  these  have  already  been  touched  upon  in  con- 
sidering the    period  of   barrenness    which   preceded. 
These  were,  first  the  rise  of  chivalry  with  the  higher 
moral  standard  that  it  set  up,  the  refinement  of  man- 
ners that  it  initiated  by  its  principle  of  courtesy,  and 
the  germs  of  literary  taste  that  were  fostered  by  chiv- 
alric  poetry;  and  second,  the  growth  of  municipalities 
endowed   with  chartered  or  conceded   rights,   busied 
with  industries  which   tended   to    an  ever-increasing 
diversification,  and  feeling  the  need  for  their  success 
of  a  kind  of  civic  knowledge  quite  unlike  anything 
that  was  presented  in   the  sparsely  distributed  schools 
that  existed,  whose  chief  aim  was  to  subserve  the  faith 
and  to  train  the  clergy  to  perform  the  services  of  the 
church  in  the  consecrated  language  of  the  church. 

To  the  internal  polity  of  the  municipalities,  Profes- 
sor Laurie  also  ascribes  an  interesting  influence  exerted 
upon  the  inner  organization  of  the  universities,  which 
were  the  nurseries  and  representatives  of  the  12th  cen- 
tury Renaissance.     This  influence  was  due  to  the  man- 
ner  in  which  their  powers  and  privileges  were  gained. 
From  the  disorders  of  the  times  in  which  no  settled  laws 
and  no  generally  recognized  supreme  authority  existed, 
the  towns  as  they  arose  had  been  obliged  as  the  very 
condition  of  their  existence  to  assume  certain  powers 
of  organization,  internal  direction,  and  control,  with- 
out which  no  united  life  could  have  continued,  and  no 
individual  could  have  pursued  his  vocation  unhindered. 
These  powers  thus  assumed  and  exercised  with  the 
general  concurrence  of  the  members  of  the  communi- 
ties, soon  grew  into  customs  of  the  towns,  and  were 


108 


THE   CRUSADES 


essentia  ly  democratic    in    their  character;    in   many 
cases  th,s  k.nd  of  internal  organization  extended  itselJ 
to  the  various  industries  carried  on  within  the  towns. 
Thus  grew  up  the  Guilds  of  the  Middle  Ages  some  of 
which  St,  1  exist  in  the  cities  of  Europe.     Ihese  g  ild 
rights  and  power.,  thus  at  first  tacitly  assumed  Lm 
he  necessities  of  the  case,  when  they  came  to  be  no- 
ticed by  the  supreme  authority  had  already  grown  into 
immemonal  usuagea,   and  were  then  regulated,  coT 
firmed,  or  even  extended  by  royal  charters 

To  the  example  afforded  by  this  guild  organization 
which  had  specially  abundant  instances  in  Italy,  and 
to  the  mode  in  which  it  originated  in  the  assumption 
of  necessary  powers  of  self-goyernment,  Professor 
Laune  in  his  "  Rise  and  Constitution  of  U;iversitle  " 
wrth  some  probability  refers  the  privileges  and  disci- 
pline of  the  earlier  universities. 

3-    The  Crusades 

A  third  cause  which  was  highly  influential  in  rous- 
ing Europe  from  the  intellectual   torpor  in  which  it 
had  long  been  sunk,  may  be  found  in  the  Crusades, 
tht  offspring  born  of  union  of  religious  fanaticism 
with   he  chivalnc  love  of  adventure.     These  wonder- 
ful religious  expeditions  gave  a  new  impulse  to  intel- 
lectual life  in  many  ways.     They  broke  up  effectually 
and     orever  the    isolation    which  had  resulted  from 
feudal  manners,  which  had  sundered  not  merely  dis- 
tinct nationalities  but  also  the  various  members  of  the 
same  nationality,  and  which   therefore   prevented  all 
that  active  movement  of  spirits,  that  lively  curiosity 
inquiry,  and   exchange  of  diverse  experiences   which 


COMPANIONSHIP   OF   NATIONS 


109 


we   behold    where    there   is   a   free   intermingling   of 
peoples. 

This  isolation,  which  had  been  one  great  cause  of 
the  darkness  that  brooded  over  Europe,  the  Crusades 
brought  forever  to  an  end.  Princes  and  peasants, 
feudal  nobles  and  burghers,  from  all  the  Christian 
nationalities  of  western  Europe,  were  united  in  the 
bonds  of  a  common  enterprise  and  inspired  by  a  com- 
mon purpose.  For  the  first  time  in  ages  the  various 
peoples  of  Europe  and  even  men  from  neighborhoods 
not  widely  separated,  really  looked  into  each  other's 
faces  and  saw  each  other  as  they  were — recognized 
that  kindred  blood  flowed  in  their  veins  and  that  they 
were  animated  by  impulses  kindled  by  a  common  faith. 

The  barriers  once  broken  down,  there  began  an  even 
freer  commerce  of  ideas.  Experiences  gained  under 
the  most 'diverse  circumstances  and  from  the  most 
various  modes  of  life  were  actively  compared  in  the 
companionship  of  arms;  and  a  whole  new  world  of 
ideas  was  opened  and  an  intellectual  quickening  gained 
which  was  fraught  with  important  consequences  for 
the  future  of  Europe. 

Nor  did  this  intellectual  impulse  come  only  from 
the  intermingling  with  their  comrades.  They  trav- 
ersed wide  realms  before  unknown  to  them.  They 
saw  the  wonders  of  Byzantine  architecture  and  art, 
and  the  splendor  of  that  Saracenic  culture  which  they 
had  come  to  combat.  Some  dim  sense,  at  least,  of 
the  vastness  of  the  earth  and  its  interests,  of  the 
worth  of  those  sciences,  of  the  art  and  poetry  and 
philosophy  of  which  they  were  ignorant,  found  access 
to  their  minds;  and  when  they  finally    returned   to 


'i' '. 


'-*!■.<-., 


110 


SAKACENIC    SCHOOLS 


their  homes  they  were  no  longer  the  same  men  who 
had  set  forth  on  their  wild  pilgrimage  to  the  empty 
sepulchre  of  the  risen  Christ.     Xew  ideas  and  higher 
aspirations  were  awakened  in  many  hearts;  new  yearn- 
mgs  after  a  knowledge  that  might  sweeten  human  life 
and  render  it  better  worth,  living  stirred  many  a  more 
generous  spirit,   not  inclined  to  an  ascetic  waste  of 
ife;  and  the  disposition  was  aroused  which  prompted 
the  youth  of  the  laity  to  flock  by  the  thousands  from 
ail  parts  of   western    Europe  to  any  new  centre  of 
earning  of  whose  existence  the  rumor  was  brought 
to  their  ears.  ° 

What  if,  as  Gibbon  alleges,  a  new  swarm  of  legends 
and  superstitions  was  brought  back  to  Europe  on  the 
returning  tide  of  the  Crusades.  The  intellectual 
awakening  which  they  had  caused  was  richly  worth 
any  temporary  corruption  of  the  faith  by  imported 
superstitions  to  which  ignorant  credulity  is  always 
prone;  it  could  indeed  be  trusted  soon"  to  correct 
effectually  any  corruption,  and  to  cause  wholesome 
modifications  ,n  faith  itself;  for  to  errors  of  opinion 
thought  alone  can  bring  a  sure  corrective:  mental 
lethargy  alone  is  hopeless  of  cure. 

4.    The  Saracenic  Schools 

A  fourth  cause  of  the  intellectual  awakening  of 
the  12th  century  may  be  found  in  an  impulse  proceed- 
ing from  the  great  Saracenic  schools  of  Spain  and  from 
the  high  grade  of  culture  which  there  existed.  Even 
in  the  10th  century  these  schools  by  their  eminence  had 
tempted  some  ambitious  youth,  like  Gerbert,  to  brave 
the  mysterious  dangers  that  tales  of  necromancy  and 


INFLUENCE    UPON    EUROPE 


1 


111 


devirs  lore  had  frightened  ignorant  Europe  withal, 
that  they  might  bring  back  something  of  value  from 
these  forbidden  sources  of  learning.  But  after  the 
first  Crusades,  the  numbers  who  visited  the  Moham- 
medan schools  evidently  became  greater — possibly 
encouraged  by  the  advancement  of  Gerbert  to  the 
popedom — and  a  new  and  sharper  stimulus  to  pro- 
gress was  added  to  the  impulse  given  to  mind  by  the 
Crusades.  The  reality  of  the  influence  exerted  at  this 
time  by  the  Saracens  on  neighboring  Europe  may  be 
inferred  with  some  probability  from  the  scholastic 
direction  which  the  intellectual  activity  in  Europe  at 
once  took  on,  a  direction  which  in  this  age  prevailed 
in  the  Mohammedan  schools  of  Spain.  It  was  natural 
then  as  now  that  learners  should  copy  the  practice  of 
their  most  influential  teachers;  and  thus  a  highly 
stimulating  method  was  added  to  the  pedagogic  re- 
sources of  Europe.* 

To  these  four  facts  may  be  added  as  a  circumstance 
which  greatly  facilitated  the  new  intellectual  movement 
and  aided  to  make  it  general,  the  universal  domination 
of  the  Catholic  church  and  the  universal  acceptance  of 
its  consecrated  language,  the  Latin,  as  a  common  me- 
dium of  communication  among  the  learned. 

By  the  universal  sway  which  the  church  exercised 
over  the  minds  of  her  faithful  sons,  travel  was  made 
easier  and  safer  for  the  many  thousand  youths  who,  as 

*Rashdall,  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Aees,  Vol.  I,  pp.35, 
gives  as  the  cause  of  the  special  form  of  intellectual  activity,  i.  e.,  the 
Scholastic  form,  the  use  of  the  favorite  dialectic  method,  long  familiar  at 
part  of  the  Trivium.  on  the  Platonic  metaphysical  question  of  the  nature  of 
UnicertaU,  which  was  discussed  with  great  fury  because  of  its  bearing  on 
Theological  dogmas,  i.  e.,  Transubstantiation.  and  so  brought  Scholastic 
Theology  to  greater  prominence  than  Scholastic  Philosophy. 


112 


THE   CATHOLIC   CHURCH 


ft 


students  under  the  protecting  aegis  of  the  church, 
desired  to  pursue  their  studies  at  distant  seats  of  learn- 
ing; whilst,  amid  the  multiplicity  of  languages  and 
djalects  that  had  now  sprung  up,  the  common  ifnguage 
of  the  earned  served  as  an  accepted  means  of  com- 
munication, as  well  in  the  schools  as  in  the  monaster- 
ies, which  were  the  hostelries  of  travelling  scholars 


I 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   TWELFTH    CENTURY     REVIVAL   OF   LEARNING    AND 
THE   MEDI.^VAL    UNIVERSITIES 

The  most  interesting  fact  as  well  as  the  truest  repre- 
sentative of  that  remarkable  intellectual  movement 
in  Europe,  which  began  in  the  12th  century,  and 
whose  inciting  and  favoring  causes  we  have  just  ex- 
amined, was  unquestionably  the  rise  of  the  medieval 
universities.  These  not  only  constituted  the  most 
unique  and  permanent  product  of  the  movement,  but 
in  their  method  and  subject-matter  they  also  truly 
represented  its  spirit  and  its  results.  Hence  they 
merit  at  our  hands  a  somewhat  careful  examination, 
though  our  limits  will  permit  little  detail.* 

That  the  vigorous  wakening  of  Europe  from  its 
long  lethargy  should  have  been  followed,  as  a  natural 
consequence,  by  the  revival  of  old  schools  that  had 
become  dormant,  and  by  the  multiplication  of  new 
ones,  would  be  precisely  what  we  might  look  for;  and 
this  is  doubtless  the  most  wide-reaching  form  in  which 
the    movement   of   mind   found    expression;   but    the 

•  Those  5peci*lly  interested  in  this  subject  will  do  well  to  read  The  Rise 
and  Constitution  of  Universities  by  Prof.  S.  S.  Laurie,  and  Compavres  Abe- 
lard,  and  to  consult  Denifl^,  Die  UniversitAten  des  Mittelalters';  the  first 
▼olume  of  Hubers  English  Universities,  the  first  two  chapters  of  Mullin- 
gers  The  University  of  Cambridge.  Lete's  History  of  the  University  of  Ox- 
ford. Vol.  4  of  Von  Raumer's  Geschichte  der  Pidagogik,  translated  in  full 
in  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  and  the  first  portion  of  Paulsen's  Ge- 
tchichte  des  Gelehrten  Unterrichts.  Also  RashdelL  Universities  of  Europe 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  - 

(113) 


114 


THE   MEDIEVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


.1 


reasons  are  not  so  obvious  why  it  should  have  resulted 

m  the  8pnng;ng  up  in  many  parts  of  Europe  of  those 

pecml.zed  h>gh  schools  which  we  call  uuiversTti  s-a 

ypeo    schools  of  which  Europe  had  had  no  ex  "ple^ 

S  Spain"    '"  ''"'""'''  ^''  "  ''''  '*^''<=^'^'«  ^'^hools 

JmtZom"^i"  ""■'"'  ""•'"^  '^'-  ''^'•^  ^-^  -hich 
we  may  profitably  examine.     The  first  reason  that  he 

assigns  ,s,  "  that  the  growth  of  traditionar"  earning 
accumulated  so  great  a  weight  on  the  subjectsTaf 

to"  s' weir'  ''^  ""'  "'  "^•^  •'"'^  -«  most  e     nti 
to  hs  welfare  as  a  member  of  society,  as  to  demand 

speciahzat.on;"  and  that  thus,  when  thought  awak 

ened  and  men  became  conscious  of  their  spiritual  and 

o?e  bHti'nrf  ^"^^'  '-'^'^'^  ''^'  '-^  -^---t^B 
arose  by  a  kind  of  inner  necessity. 

I  do  not  wholly  agree  with  the  learned  professor  in 
the  emphasis  that  he  lays  upon  this  as  a  ca'use  of  uni" 

whe  hi  Zr'""'  '"  "  *  ™«"-  0^  f-t  I  doubt 
ttnlrv  lel  "'"\"''^  '"'•^  accumulation  of  tradi- 

tionary learning  as  he  seems  to  assume,  i„  at  least  two 

appea  ef  ^::  ''""^'"  '^'^'^'^  «P-ialization  earliest 
appeared,  viz.,  medicine  and  jurisprudence  The 
ormer  was  indeed  somewhat  studied  and  practised  in 
the  monastics,  but  it  was  in  the  works  of'oa  en  anS 
Hippocrates,  to  which  nothing  seems  to  have  been 
added;  any  addition,  in  truth,  would  have  run^ounter 
to  the  entire  spirit  of  the  times,  which  was  who  y 
subservient  to  authority.     The   Saracens   during  tS 

creit  them    "rl  ""'•^'^'''''^  ^'^"'•*'««'  ""d  GilX'on 
credits  them  with  the  origination  of  the  first  special- 


CAUSES   OF   THEIR   RISE 


115 


ized  school  of  medicine  at  Salernum  in  1060  A  D 
Laurie,  who  assigns  the  origin  of  this  school  to  the 
same  date  ascribes  the  first  instruction  given  there  to 
monks  and  later  to  one  Constantine,  who  had  returned 
from  the  east  stored  with  varied  learning.  In  either 
case  we  have  no  indication  of  an  accumulation  of 
traditionary  lore. 

The  case  is  still  weaker  with  jurisprudence,  which 
during  these  ages  had  sunk  into  the  greatest  neglect, 
so  that  in  those  centuries  when  might  was  the  chief 
source  of  right,  the  very  tradition  of  the  Roman  civil 
aw  would  seem  to  have  been  well-nigh  lost,  or  at  best 
to  hare  been  confined  to  a  few  obscure  Italian  schools. 
Yet  It  was  in  these  two  departments,  in  which   we 
have  little  encouragement  to  look  for  an  accumulation 
of  traditionary  learning,  that  special  schools  first  made 
their  appearance,  for  medicine  at  Salernum,  and  at 
ijologna  for  law. 

In  theology  however  and  in  this  alone,  the  case  was 
difl-erent;  for  here  there  had  indeed  accumulated  a 
jast  body  of  ecclesiastical  lore  and  ecclesiastical  tradi- 
tion which  stood  in  great  need  of  being  sifted  by  an 
age  of  rising  intelligence;  and  it  was  sifted  during 
succeeding  times,  with  the  result  however  rather  of 
adding  to  Its  bulk,  than  of  condensing  by  a  just  dis- 
crimination and  thus  increasing  its  value. 

I  am  therefore  inclined  to  think  that  the  case  might 
perhaps  be  more  exactly  stated  in  this  form;  that  as 
intelligence  increased,  and  the  state  of  society  became 
more  settled,  and  industries  and  trade  assumed  larger 
proportion8,-life  and  its  concomitant  health  were 
felt  to  be  more  valuable;  and   the  need  was  realized 


I 


I 


I 


116 


THE    MEDIEVAL    CNIVERSITIES 


for  a  more  settled  and  systematic  and  complete  system 
oflawsthan  was  then  anywhere  in  force;  and  that 
hence  ambitious  young  men  were  ready  to  flock  eagerlv 
to  any  centre  of  learning  where  it  was  reported  that 
these  desjrable  knowledges  might  be  gained,  la  the- 
ology had  long  been  nearly  an  exclusive  object  of  at- 
tention   ,ts  nse  to  prominence  under  better  teachers 

lor  Its  explanation.  ^ 

thelt'T'"^  fact  to  which  Professor  Laurie  ascribes 
the  rise  of  universities  and  the  particular  form  that  they 
early  assumed,  is  doubtless  to  a  limited  extent  valid 
for  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  growth  of 

ZrTiTT''  '"1"^   ''^'"'^  *^^  '--'^    '^  to  the 
pursuit  of  the  great  leading  specialities  in  schools  not 

th  EaMn?'  1  "^  ''''''^'''  ^'''"^^t  •'"•^k  from 
stil-rr  K  .  r  ^.  '  "'''  '"PP'y  '^  ^'Senda  and  super- 
stations  but  also  ,n  not  a  few  instances  a  skepticism 
which  degenerated  sometimes  into  downright  dfsbeliel' 
Monasteries  increased  indeed  and  according  to  Hal- 
am  superstition  took  on  its  most  monstrous  forms   in 

tts.'but'sidf  r'  *.'"  "f '  '""^ "«« «^  -'--- 

t^es    but  side  by  side  with  this  fact,  running  parallel 
wuh  It,  and  probably  heightened  by  it,  was  tL  fac 
of  the  growth  of  a  skeptical  spirit  which  gave  b  rth 

,t  i,/^  1°  disrepute.     It  seems  quite  probable  that 
was  from  this  latter  class,  inclined  to  skepticism  and 

sSons^'Il  IT'  '■"■'^^  "^  '"""'^^  -'  -na^t  c 
restrictions  that  the  crowds  who  flocked  to  the  incipi- 
ent universities    were    considerably    recruited.     Thl 


CAUSES   OF   THEIR    RISE 


117 


may  at  least  plausibly  account  for  their  measurable 
freedom  from  clerical  control  in  times  when  all  other 
schools  were  so  controlled.  Yet  when  we  consider  all  the 
facts  in  the  early  growth  of  the  universities,  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  we  may  easily  push  this  idea  too  far. 

We  may  admit  Professor  Laurie's  third  cause,  viz., 
**  the  actual  specializing  of  the  leading  studies,"  law, 
medicines,  and  theology,  at  certain  centres  where  in- 
struction was  open  to  all  comers  without  monastic 
restrictions,  with  its  tendency  in  the  state  of  feeling 
which  then  existed  to  attract  to  such  centres  crowds 
of  eager  young  men,  **  as  the  chief  key  to  the  explana- 
tion of  the  rise  of  the  higher  university  schools  ".  It 
would  be  well,  however,  to  look  upon  it  merely  as  a 
starting  point  from  which  to  date  the  origin  of  the 
university  as  suchy  since  without  this  limitation  every 
special  school  of  law,  medicine,  or  theology  might  be 
regarded  as  an  incipient  university. 

Professor  Laurie's  idea  of  the  constitution  of  the 
early  universities  seems,  in  the  main,  eminently  clear, 
comprehensive,  and  satisfactory,  accounting  as  it  does 
for  all  the  known  prominent  facts  in  their  early  his- 
tory. His  idea  may  thus  be  briefly  summarized:  (1) 
they  were  specialized  schools  of  some  one  or  more  of 
the  great  professional  studies;  (2)  they  were  generally 
at  the  seats  of  pre-existing  schools  of  the  liberal  arts 
which  ultimately  were  absorbed  into  their  organiza- 
tion; (3)  they  were  open  to  all  comers  without  distinc- 
tion of  nationality;  (4)  they  were  free  from  direct 
clerical  domination  and  especially  at  the  outset  from 
monastic  restrictions,  and  (5)  after  the  example  of 
the  existing  guilds  they  assumed  to  themselves  at  first 


118 


THE    MEDIEVAL    LNIVERSITIES 


needful  powers  of  self-government,  direction,  and 
protection,  which  at  a  later  date  were  confirmed  by 
ecclesiastical  or  royal  authority.  We  shall  be  able 
more  easily  to  give  a  brief  yet  reasonably  dear  ac 
count  of  these  remarkable  institutions  by  following  in 
their  order  the  five  parts  of  this  description. 

With  few  exceptions  they  first  appear  as  centres  of 
instruction  in  some  one  of  the  three  great  professional 
specialties;  as  for  example,  Salernum  in  medicine, 
Bologna  in  civil  law,  Paris  in  theology,  and  Montpellier 
in  both  medicine  and  law. 

Though  lectures  in   civil  law   were  early  given   in 

Oxford,  Its  real  specialty  was  philosophy,  with  which 

theology  was  intimately  connected;  this  was  also  true 

of  Cambridge;  and  in  later  centuries  the  professional 

specialties   never  so  prominently  characterized  these 

institutions  as  they  did  the  continental  universities. 

Their  honorable  distinction  is  that  they  have  been  best 

known  as  great  schools  for  an  advanced  and  non-pro- 

fessional  culture.     Yet  no  one  would  deny  them  the 

university  name  and  rank. 

Hence   it  would  not  seem  that  the  prominence   of 
professional  specialties  was  at  all  vital  as  a  character- 
istic  of   universities  save  in  later  German   opinions 
In  process  of  time  the  continental   universities  added 
other  specialties  to  that  with  which  they  had  begun, 
unti   finally  most  of  them  had  the  four  faculties,  arts 
theology,  medicine,  and  law;  and  by  1300  a  univers- 
ity  was  considered  incomplete  that  did  not  provide  for 
instructing  and  graduating  students  in  all  these  facul- 
ties.*     On  this  basis,  however,   Paris,   -  the  mother 

*  Laurie.  Rise  and  Constitution  of  Universities,  p.  166.  ' 


THEIR   ORIGIN 


119 


of  universities  ",  was  incomplete,  having   no  faculty 
of  civil  law. 

The  origin  of  all  the  earliest  universities  is  obscure, 
being  lost  in  the  mists  of  antiquity.  Consider  for 
example  the  universities  of  Bologna,  of  Paris,  and  of 
Oxford;  it  is  impossible  to  assign  any  precise  date 
when  they  may  be  said  to  have  begun.  The  University 
of  Bologna,  in  her  recent  invitation  to  the  celebration 
of  her  eighth  centennial,  speaks  of  this  uncertainty 
and  fixes  upon  the  date  1087  as  the  nearest  approxi- 
mation. A  like  obscurity  rests  upon  the  origin  of 
Paris,  of  Oxford,  and  of  Cambridge. 

Much  of  this  uncertainty  arises  from  the  fact  that 
they  were  off-shoots  or,  in  a  limited  sense,  continua- 
tions of  schools  of  the  liberal  arts  that  had  long  ex- 
isted. Thus  Bologna  was  an  off-shoot  of  such  a  school 
that  was  of  unknown  antiquity;  Paris  grew  out  of  a 
school  connected  with  the  cathedral  of  Xotre  Dame 
that  may  possibly  have  originated  in  the  impulse  given 
by  Charlemagne;'^ and  Oxford  is  supposed  by  some,  on 
very  insuflScient  and  even  mythical  grounds,  to  be  the 
higher  development  of  a  school  possibly  as  old  as 
Alfred  the  Great. f 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  readily  be  under- 
stood that  the  earliest  universities  were  not  founded 
as  later  institutions  of  the  kind  were,  by  charters  and 
grants  conferred  by  popes  or  rulers;  they  simply  grew 
and  in  some  cases  had  existed  long  and  become  famous 
before  they  received  a  formal  governmental  recogni- 

tSee  E)enifl6.  Die  Universitftten.  des  Mittelalters,  pp.  238-241. 

See  also  Mullinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge,  etc.,  p  80,  on  the  ob- 
scurity of  the  origin  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge;  and  Lyte.  History  of  Ox- 
ford. C.  IX. 


I 

I 


120 


THE   MEDIEVAL   UNITER8ITIES 


tion.  The  process  of  their  formation  was  analogous 
to  that  by  >hich  the  **  Schools  of  Athens  "  grew  out 
of  the  teachings  of  the  sophists  and  philosophers. 
Some  man  of  talent,  learning,  and  enthusiasm  for  his 
subject,  began  to  lecture  at  the  seat  of  an  existing 
school  on  his  favorite  specialty,  using  a  new  method 
suited  to  the  needs  of  the  age;  and  by  attracting  to 
himself  a  swarm  of  eager  learners,  started  a  movement 
which  ended  in  a  famous  university. 

Savigny  in  his  ''  History  of  the  Roman  Law  "  gives 
this  graphic  account  of  the  beginnings  of  these  insti- 
tutions: **It  would  be  wholly  erroneous  were  we  to 
consider  the  earliest  universities  of  the  Middle  Ages 
as  institutions  of  learning  in  our  sense,  i.  e.,  as  foun- 
dations in  which  a  prince  or  a  city  had  chiefly  in  view 
to  provide  instruction  for  the  native  population,  the 
participation  of  strangers  however  being  permitted. 
Such  was  not  the  case,  but  when  a  man  inspired  with 
an  ardent  love  of  teaching  had  gathered  around  him 
a  multitude  of  scholars  eager  to  learn,  there  easily 
sprung  up  a  succession  of  teachers;  the  circle  of 
hearers  increased  and  thus  a  permanent  school  was 
established  wholly  by  a  kind  of  inner  necessity."* 

Thus  Irnerius  at  Bologna,  by  his  instruction  in  civil 
law,  and  William  of  Champeaux  or  his  pupil  Abelard 
in  Paris,  by  lectures  on  theology  and  philosophy,  using 
the  dialectic  method  which  earlier  from  its  theological 
implications  had  discredited  Scotus  Erigena,  gave  the 
impulse  out  of  which  grew  great   universities.     The 

♦Geschichte  des  ROmischen  Rechts  in  Mittelalter,  Vol.  3  p  154.  This 
passage  is  quoted  by  Mullinger  in  his  History  of  Cambridge  University  p  72 
as  also  by  Laurie,  Rise  and  Constitution  of  Universities,  p.  168. 


ENORMOUS    NUMBER   OF   STUDENTS 


121 


interest  that  attaches  to  the  more  ancient  schools  on 
which  they  grew,  consists  solely  in  the  fact  that 
sooner  or  later  these  schools  became  the  faculty  of 
arts,  i.  e.,  preparatory  schools  in  the  developed  uni- 
versities. 

From  the  manner  in  which  they  originated  and  from 
the  circumstances  of  the  times,  these  incipient  uni- 
versities were  open  to  all  comers,  and  soon  ceasing  to 
be  local  or  even  national,  they  became  international. 

If  we  recall  the  condition  of  things  that  existed  in 
Western  Europe  at  this  epoch,  as  already  described 
(page  113),  the  movement  of  mind,  the  vividly  awak- 
ened interest  in  a  higher  learning  corresponding  to  the 
improving  conditions  of  existence,  and  the  greater 
facilities  for  intercourse  now  afforded;  and  add  to  all 
these  facts,  the  small  number  of  the  men  throughout 
Europe  who  were  fitted  to  give  any  advanced  special 
instruction,  and  that  *'  oral  instruction  was  almost  the 
only  path  to  comprehensive  knowledge  ",  since  cen- 
turies were  yet  to  elapse  before  printing  was  invented 
to  bring  to  one's  very  door  whatever  of  value  was  any- 
where known — it  will  readily  be  understood  why  such 
prodigious  numbers  should  have  flocked  to  some  of 
the  more  famous  centres  of  learning  from  regions  very 
widely  separated.  Thus  we  hear  of  10,000  and  20,000 
at  Bologna,  and  of  30,000  each  at  Paris  and  Oxford. 

Lyte  however  in  his  recent  History  of  the  Univers- 
ity of  Oxford  shows  that  this  was  a  gross  exaggeration 
of  the  numbers  at  Oxford,  as  it  probably  was  for  Paris 
and  Bologna.  To  account  for  these  great  assemblages, 
we  are  told  that  great  numbers  of  mere  boys  went  to 
the  universities   for  quite  elementary  training,    inso- 


122 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    UNIVEBSITIES 


i 


*  much  that  Paris  was  obliged  to  refuse  to  receive  lads 
under  twelve  years  of  age,  a  fact  which  suggests  the 
paucity  and  the  inferiority  of  local  schools;  also  that 
the  college  servants,  as  well  as  the  retainers  of  the 
richer  students,   were  matriculated  that  they  might 
enjoy  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  university. 
Xow  although  these  students,  drawn  together  from  the 
most  diverse  nationalities  by  the  fact  that  famous  seats 
of  learning  were  open  freely  to  all  comers,  presumably 
had  some  facility  in  the  use  of  Latin,  still  it  was  only 
natural  that  those  who  used  the  same  native  dialect 
should  group  themselves  together,  should  occupy  con- 
tiguous lodgings  or  even  erect  lodgings  for  themselves, 
should  have  in  many  respects  a  community  of  inter- 
ests,  and  should  lead   a  common  life.     Hence   arose 
the  "  nations  "  which  make  so  great  a  figure  in  many 
of  the  mediaeval  universities,  and   which  would   seem 
at  times  almost  to  have  been  thought  an   essential 
feature  of  a  university. 

Thus  Paris  had  four  nations,  and  these  had  erected 
halls  for  their  own  accommodations  long  before  the 
university  had  any  place  save  a  borrowed  church  in 
which  to  hold  meetings  of  its  regents.     Bologna  had 
two  great  groups  of  nations,  the  Cisalpine  and  Trans- 
alpine, each  with  many  subdivisions,  and  these  through 
their  representatives   exerted  a  controlling   influence 
on  university  affairs,  governing  the  teachers  as  well  as 
the   students.     When    two    centuries   later   the    first 
German  universities  were  founded,  the  idea  of  nations 
as  a  feature  of  university  organization  still  had  such 
hold  that  they  were  provided  for  there  also,  though 
the  membership  was  sure  to  be  mostly  local. 


THE     nations";  freedom  of  teaching      123 

Amongst  these  groups  of  students  thus  freely  called 
together,  there  was  naturally  at  the  outset  a  freedom 
of  studying  when  and  what  they  pleased,  untram- 
melled by  any  prescribed  courses,  wholly  analogous 
to  what  we  have  seen  in  the  universities  of  antiquity,* 
with  the  like  concomitants  of  unobstrusive  industry 
and  obtrusive  idleness,  tumults,  and  disorders. 

Parallel  with  this  perfect  freedom  of  study  was  also 
a  like  freedom  of  teaching.  At  first,  any  man  who 
felt  that  he  had  desirable  knowledge  which  he  wished 
to  impart  could  hire  a  room  and  collect  about  himself 
a  group  of  students;  if  his  lectures  proved  acceptable 
his  audiences  might  swell  to  great  dimensions  and 
give  him  a  wide  reputation. 

In  the  paragraph  from  which  a  quotation  was  given 
above,  Savigny  calls  attention  to  an  inconvenience  in- 
herent in  this  freedom  of  teaching  in  universities,  in- 
asmuch as  **  Their  special  reputation  depended  in  part 
on  accidental,  personal,  changeable  conditions.  A  few 
teachers  of  great  talent  could  elevate  a  school,  and 
under  the  unskilful  hands  of  their  immediate  succes- 
sors it  might  again  decline.  For  the  universities  stood 
quite  alone,  based  upon  themselves,  without  connection 
with  a  thorough  national  culture,  and  without  the  in- 
dispensable  substratum  of  learned  schools." 

A  remedy  for  this  inconvenience  was  found  later, 
for  when  certificates  of  attainments  came  to  be  given 
they  took  the  form  of  a  **  licencia  docendi  ",  without 
which  it  is  not  likely  that  a  man  would  be  permitted 
to  teach  in  a  university.  If  however  the  institution 
granting  the  license  had  been  recognized  by  the  pope, 

•  Williams's  History  of  Ancient  Education,  page  1^. 


124 


THE   MEDIEVAL    UNIVERSITIES 


It  was  valid  throughout  Christendom,  and  gave  the 
licentiate  liberty  to  teach  wherever  he  could  attract 
hearers.  The  licenses  of  Paris  and  Bologna  naturally 
had  the  highest  consideration. 

Thus  I  have  considered  as  natural  incidents  of  the 
fact  that  the  universities  were  open  to  all  comers,  both 
the  formation  of  the  **  nations  ",  and  the  freedom  of 
teaching  and  of  learning  which  early  characterized 
them. 

The  universities  differed  markedly  from  the  Chris- 
tian schools  that  had  existed  in  the  preceding  centuries, 
and  from  most  of  those  in  the  centuries  that  followed,' 
in  their  freedom  from  direct  clerical  control,  and  es- 
pecially in  their  freedom  from  monastic  restrictions. 

The  most  famous  schools  that  had  existed  hereto- 
fore had  been  in  monasteries  and  had  been  subject  to 
strict  monastic  rules;  and  though  from  the   time   of 
Charlemagne  episcopal  schools  had  assumed  a  relatively 
greater  prominence,  they  were  also  under  rigid  clerical 
dominance,  held  in  churches  and  taught   by  clerics, 
and    mostly    subserved    mere  ecclesiastical    purposes. 
The  new  institutions  had  views  much  wider  than  the 
horizon  of  the  church,  views  which  embraced  the  ex- 
tending needs  of  a  busy  world,  amongst  which  the 
needs  of  the  church,  though   usually  prominent,  con- 
stituted but  one  of  many.     To  accomplish  these  vari- 
ous purposes,  the  universities  must  be  free  from  the 
domination  of  any  single  influence,  and  the  character- 
istic that  is  now  under  consideration  sprang  from  the 
necessities  of  the  situation,  quite  as  much  possibly  as 
from  any  rising  spirit  of  hostility  to  clerical  control 
among  the  laity. 


NOT   UNDER    CLERICAL   CONTROL 


125 


The  teachers  were  doubtless  largely  of  the  clerical 
order;  the  students  were  mostly  adherents  of  the 
church,  at  least  in  name,  and  many  of  them  also 
clergy;  but  they  exercised  influence  in  university 
affairs  not  as  clergy  or  as  churchmen,  but  merely  as 
members  of  the  university.  In  Bologna  indeed  it  has. 
been  said  that  no  member  of  a  monastic  order  could 
hold  the  rectorship;  yet  after  1250  A.  D.  it  seems 
probable  that  the  rector  must  have  been  a  clerical  per- 
son, since  he  had  jurisdiction  over  clerics.  To  the 
freedom  of  life  which  the  lack  of  monastic  restrictions 
permitted  were  doubtless  due  most  of  the  disorders 
and  riots  which  make  so  considerable  a  figure  in  early 
university  history,  and  which,  from  the  still  rude 
manners  of  the  times,  as  well  as  from  the  custom  of 
carrying  weapons,  too  frequently  ended  in  bloodshed. 
Young  men  unused  to  freedom  learned  to  use  it  by  at 
first  using  it  badly,  a  thing  not  unknown  to  modern 
times. 

The  earliest  universities,  as  we  have  seen,  were  not 
founded,  but  sprang  up  as  a  kind  of  spontaneous 
growth.  As  these  voluntary  assemblages  increased  in 
membership,  they  experienced  the  necessity  of  some 
internal  organization,  some  settled  order,  some  gener- 
ally recognized  power,  as  well  for  the  purposes  of  self- 
protection  from  rude  and  not  always  friendly  surround- 
ings, as  for  the  attainment  of  their  scholarly  aims. 
Hence  we  early  find  them  exercising  powers  and  enjoy- 
ing privileges  needful  for  their  purposes,  making  of 
themselves  republics  of  letters  in  the  midst  of  the 
cities  where  they  were  established,  and  even  extending 
their  authority  over  their  members  to  many  things 


126 


THE    MEDI.EVAL    UNIVERSITIES 


which  are  usually  matters  of  municipal  jurisdiction. 
They  had  their  own  officers  elected  in  rarious  ways  at 
different  universities,  with  a  rector  at  the  head,  their 
own  statutes,  and  even  their  own  judges  and  prison  for 
the  trial  and  punishment  of  offenders. 

These  remarkable  privileges  have  been  plausibly 
ascribed  to  the  assumption  of  powers  in  imitation  of 
the  guilds  of  trades,  and  especially  those  of  travelling 
merchants,  that  then  existed  in  southern  and  western 
Europe.  It  is  evident  however  that  such  assumed 
powers  would  be  in  their  very  nature  purely  local  and 
held  on  the  precarious  tenure  of  local  toleration. 

The  recent  and  exhaustive  researches  of  Denifl^  * 
show  that  far  too  great  emphasis  has  been  laid  on  the 
idea  of  assumption  of  powers  of  internal  organization 
and  government.  These  assemblages  of  teachers  and 
students  evidently  eariy  felt  the  need  of  some  more 
efficient  and  far-reaching  means  of  protection  than 
their  own  tacit  agreements;  for  by  the  middle  of  the 
12th  century  we  see  the  Bolognese  seeking  and  obuin- 
ing  from  the  emperor  the  important  privileges  of  secure 
residence  while  at  the  university,  of  choosing  their 
tribunal  in  cases  of  accusation,  and  of  safe-conduct  in 
their  journeys  to  and  from  the  universitv  citv. 

Yet  the  student  associations  in  Bologna,  largely 
composed  of  mature  men,  were  doubtless  formed  on 
the  model  of  the  Italian  guild ;  and  their  earl?  resort 
to  the  emperor  proves  how  precarious  they  found  their 
•wumption  of  privileges.  The  university  of  Paris 
likewise  evidently  had  privileges  granted  by'the  French 
king  in  the  12th  century,  although  no  records  of  them 


taken  from  Lftcroii) 


(1?7) 


4ll 


\ 


I 


PRIVILEGES;    ORGANIZATION 


129 


exist  earlier  than  1200  A.  D.,  since  such  privileges  are 
assigned  as  reasons  for  the  great  frequentation  of  its 
schools,  and  since  members  of  the  schools  defended 
them  even  by  secessions  as  their  ancient  rights  conferred 
by  kings  and  popes.  The  associations  of  arts  students 
and  masters  to  form  nations,  which  most  resemble 
guilds,  it  may  be  remarked,  seem  not  to  have  assumed 
any  definite  form  in  Paris  till  the  13th  century,  and 
they  bear  certain  marks  of  having  been  not  of  spontan- 
eous but  artificial  formation. 

As  concerns  the  internal  organization  of  the  univer- 
sities, it  was  evidently  the  result  of  a  slow  internal 
growth,  the  aggregation  of  masters  teaching  the  same 
subjects  gradually  developing  faculties,  and  these,  by 
a  certain  concert  of  action,  forming  a  university,  to 
which  was  finally  granted  the  power  to  use  a  seal  in 
attestation  of  its  acts.  Paris  certainly,  according  to 
the  researches  of  Denifl^,  had  no  generally  recognized 
head  until  the  14th  century,  when  the  rector  of  the 
nations  finally  became  the  head  of  the  entire  university 
but  with  powers  by  no  means  great. 

From  all  this  it  will  be  obvious  that  though  the  ex- 
ample of  the  guilds  probably  influenced  to  some  extent 
the  internal  polity  of  Bologna  and  some  other  Italian 
universities  of  early  date,  this  can  hardly  be  true  of 
Paris  and  the  French  universities  fashioned  after  its 
model.  The  course  of  development  naturally  differed 
in  different  countries;  and  the  numerous  guilds  exist- 
ing at  that  period  in  Bologna  could  hardly  fail  to  have 
their  influence  on  the  thousands  of  young  men  who 
flocked  to  that  centre  of  learning.  To  this  should  be 
added  the  fact  that  the   Bolognese  nations  and  their 


130 


THE   MEDIvETAL   UNIVERSITIES 


special  privileges  were  limited  to  students  who  were 
not  natives  of  Bologna. 

When  collisions  arose  with  the  local  authorities  the 
very  poverty  of  the  universities  was  a  source  of  strength 
As  for  ages  they  had  no  buildings  of  their  own,  no 
apparatus  and  no  equipment  of  their  own  save  learned 
teachers  who  lectured  in  rooms  hired  for  the  purpose 
they  were  naturally  in  light  marching  order;  and  they 
could  easily  coerce  their  opponents  in   the  cities  to 
whom  their  trade  was  very  valuable,  by  the  threat  of 
removing  elsewhere  if  they  were  seriously  interfered 
with.     This  threat  was  often  resorted  to'and  usually 
with  the  desired  effect,  though  more  than  once  we  read 
of  serious  secessions  in  cases  of  unreconciled  disputes 
whether  with  the  local  authorities  or  within  their  own 
body.*     Indeed  the  danger  of  secessions  was  felt  to  be 
so  great  at  Bologna  that  the  municipality  strove  to 
bind  the  university  to  itself  by  requiring  of  the  profes- 
sors an  oath  not  to  teach  elsewhere.f 

Besides,  as  the  universities  grew  strong  in  numbers' 
and  reputation,  they  naturally  became  greater  objects 
of  interest  to  popes  and  princes,  who  hastened  to  at- 
tach these  rising  powers  to  themselves  by  not  only  con- 
firming the  privileges  of  autonomy  and  jurisdiction 
which  had  already  been  assumed  or  granted,  but  by  giv- 
ing wider  powers  and  range  of  influence,  by  granting 
sources  of  revenue,  and  by  according  protection  to 
students  and  their  property  on  journeys  as  well  as  in 
residence.     The  papal  bulls  also  made  their  degrees, 

•S*eLyte.HistoryoftheUniv.rsityof  0.ford.pp.41  98  etc    for«M«. 
sions  and  power  oj  poverty.  •  ff-  ■" .  •<>.  etc. ,  lor  wioei- 

t  Denill«,  Die  CniversitSten  des  MitteUlteti. 


i 


STCDIITM   GENERALE  jg, 

(.una  i.a„enc.  .i  .„  Z^'^Z^Z  E™     '  ""■ 

xne  names  that  were  earlv  annlipr?  f^  ^u 
were  variftna    o/,.^-  ,  -^  ^PP^^ea  to  them 

re  various,  studium  generate  being    the   most  usdrI 
A  few  words  will  herp  ho  ir.  ^)  usual. 

essence  of  an  univerlv  J.  ^^  "'  ''  ^^''  ^^«  '^' 

KaW  Schmidt  sayTHl^  .^rS  s^IT-V ^^ 

ndTurlsTrld^nt-T i  '''^''''^  ^^eology,^ed;cfn: 

point  to  a^^^t'v:^;;        '?"'"^'  ^'^  °°'  necessarily 

to  the  fa^tlha   fh!       T  T'""'"''  ^""^  "=«"«  ^"^'^"on 
0  the  fact  that  these  schools  were  open  to  all  comers. 

si^rnrfi./?^  "''  '°^^'«*'  *^«*  'he  name  may  have 

signified  the  general  acceptance  of  th^ir  a  ! 


r 


132 


I 


THE   M2DI.EVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


tian  universities  of  Europe,  and  had  the  right  to  teach 
anywhere." 

Professor  Laurie  feels  quite  sure  that  studium  generale 
meant  a  higher,  specialized,  and  self-governing  school, 
open  to  all  the  world,  free  from  monastic  restrictions 
or  canonical  rule,  and  endowed  with  certain  privileges, 
among  which  was  included  the  right  of  promotion,  that 
is,  of  granting  degrees. 

As  the  last  definition  contains  whatever  is  of  much 
significance  in  both  the  others,  we  may  safely  accept 
it  as  fairly  descriptive,  though  it  is  quite  possible  that 
it  contains  more  than  the  idea  originally  included. 
According  to  Denifl^,  pp.  1-29,  the  term  seems  origin- 
ally to  have  emphasized  the  fact  that  certain  institu- 
tions were  open  to  all  who  desired  to  study,  to  which 
the  idea  of  privileges  came  soon  to  be  added. 

We  may  the  more  willingly  accept  Laurie's  defini- 
tion of  a  mediaeval  university,  with  which  that  of 
Denifl^  substantially  coincides,  because  von  Raumer'a 
would  postpone  the  real  origin  of  universities  to  the 
date  of  papal  recognition,  when  in  point  of  fact  they 
had,  in  several  instances,  existed  and  exercised  their 
privileges  long  before,  besides  which  at  least  five  were 
founded  by  imperial  authorization,  without  any  papal 
confirmation;  while  Schmidt's  conception  would  ex- 
clude from  the  list  of  universities  institutions  which 
did  not  give  prominence  to  professional  specialties. 

The  antiquity  of  some  of  the  best-known  of  the 
mediaeval  universities,  is  a  matter  of  no  small  interest. 
In  1400  A.  D.  44  universities  were  already  in  existence, 
of  which  10  or  12  were  earlier  than  1300  A.  D. 
Bologna   was  a  noted  school  of  law,  probably  before 


STUDIUM    GENERALE 


133 


the  close  of  the  11th  century.     Its  late  centennial  was 
celebrated  as    from   1087  A.  D.     The  University   of 
Pans  existed  as  early   as   the  beginning  of  the  12th 
century,  privileges  were  confirmed  to  it  by  both  kinff 
and  pope  before  1180  A.  D.,  and  degrees  were   con 
ferred  before  the  century  closed.     Montpelliir  was  a 
famous  school   of  medicine   in   1137,   in  1181   it  was 
declared  to  be  open  to  all  comers  in  full  freedom,  and 
Its  first  statutes  date  from  1220  A.  D.     Oxford  existed 
as  an  institution  in  which  were  taught  philosophy, 
theology,  and  civil  law,  as  early  as  1150  A.  D  -was 
expressly  mentioned  in   1201    A.  D.   as  a  university 
with  several  thousand  students;  and  in  the  13th  cen- 
tury  was  blamed  by  Roger  Bacon  for  the  preponder- 
ance  there  given   to  the  study  of    civil    law.     These 
few  well-known  universities,  which   by  no  means  ex- 
haust  the  list,  will  suflBce  to   show   the  antiquity  of 
some  mediaeval  universities. 

The  earliest  German  universities  were  all  founded 
by  spiritual  or  temporal  authorities,  and  hence  the 
dates  of  their  origin  are  not  uncertain.  Those  of  some 
of  the  earlier  and  best  known,  omitting  Cologne  and 

rJ;o   ..  ''''  ^^°^^'  ^^''^^  ^'^  ^«  ^«"ows:  Prague 

1348  Vienna  1365,  Heidelberg  1386,  and  Leipsic  1409, 
largely  by  a  secession  from  Prague.  The  University  of 
Berhn,  as  is  generally  known,  though  now  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  famous  of  them  all,  is  a  comparatively 
modern  creation,  having  been  founded  in  1809. 


SUBJECTS 


135 


CHAPTER    VI 

STUDIES,  METHODS,  AND  DISCIPLINE  OF  THE  MEDIiEVAL 

UNIVERSITIES 

We  have  now  seen  that  the  early  universities  grew 
from  obscure  beginnings,  assuming  powers  needful  for 
self-government  which  later  were  confirmed  and  even 
extended  as  rights  by  princes  and  popes;  that  amongst 
these  rights  was  the  right  of  self-government  and  of 
jurisdiction  over  their  own  members,  even  in  cases  of 
crime;  that  they  soon  acquired  the  rights  of  prescrib- 
ing studies  and  of  conferring  degrees  which  were  of 
universal  validity,  and  that  security  for  persons  and 
property  of  students  and  for  their  servants  was  guar- 
anteed to  them  in  journeys  to  and  from  as  well  as 
within  the  university  precincts.  To  this  may  be 
added  that  they  often  received  legacies  and  also  grants 
from  popes  and  princes  of  sources  of  revenue,  that 
usuallv  thev  were  freed  from  taxes  and  other  munici- 
pal  burdens,  and  that  those  early  established  became 
models  that  were  imitated  in  the  organization  of  those 
founded  later. 

We  have  now  to  examine  what  use  they  made  of 
these  extraordinary  privileges,  i.  e.,  (1)  what  was  the 
nature  of  the  subjects  taught  in  them;  (2)  what  mode 
of  teaching  and  learning  they  pursued;  (3)  what  wm 
their  discipline  and  what  the  state  of  morals  that  pre- 
vailed;  (4)  what  indirect  effects  aside   from  studies 

(134) 


pursued  the  universities  produced  on  education  and 
civilization;  and  (5)  the  profound  changes  wrought  in 
them  by  the  invention  of  printing  and  by  the  revival 
of  classical  learning,  and  their  early  attitude  towards 
the  latter.  We  shall  be  fully  warranted  in  this  exami- 
nation, not  only  by  the  circumstance  that  the  uni- 
versities and  their  teachings  are  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant and  influential  facts  in  the  history  of  educa- 
tion during  the  four  centuries  which  preceded  1500  A 

I        «'  ..  "Ir.  ^^"""^  ^^'''  ''"^'««  ''"^  "methods  vitally 
affected  all  instruction  given  elsewhere. 

The  subjects  pursued  in  the  medieval  universities 
divide  themselves  into  two  great  groups,  viz.,  the  arts, 
which  were  the  culture  studies  with  no  special  profes- 
sional beanng,  and  the  sciences,  which  comprised  the 
three  professional  branches,  theology,  jurisprudence, 
and  medicine  regarded  by  most  investigators  as  con- 
stituting the  distinctive  notes  of  an  university 

The  arts,  or  culture  studies,  were  the  seven  liberal 
arts  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Trivium  and  Quadrivium 
that  have  so  often  been  mentioned,  and  with  much  the 
same  extension  of  meaning  for  some  of  the  subjects 
that  have  been  described  in  preceding  pages.  It  is 
well  0  observe,  however,  that  grammar,  in  which 
formal  grammar  was  emphasized,  hardly  included  any- 
thing that  could  be  called  literature,  the  authors  of 
classical  antiquity  that  had  retained  some  feeble  hold 
on  the  monastic  schools  of  the  preceding  period  being 
now  neglected;  *  and  that  dialectics,  or  the  art  of.dis 

«hool  of  Ch«tm  „d  lu  ^  of  cL!^  J*.K  r  '•  ""•  *"''  '"  "■* 


136 


THE    MEDI.ETAL   CXIVERSITIES 


putation    W.S  the  preponderating  subject,   with  the 

then  llf ''f '  r-  '"'"^'^^  '""^  ^^'>'<^^'  '^-'  had 
preme  authorities. 

The  student  in  arts  received  first  the  degree  of 
bachelor  and  some  years  later  that  of  master,  the  two 
degrees  requmng  at   Oxford   about   seven    vears.     U 

well  as  in  the  sciences  now  to  be  mentioned,  wm  given 
entirely  in  Latin.  If  for  no  other  reason,  this  w'^u  d 
have  been  imperative  with  students  coming  from  many 

t?"?yT"''/"'^  ^P^""^'^"^  many  different  dia' 
lects;  though  it  is  probable  that  students,  as  a  rule 

attached  themselves  to  masters  who  were  their  coun 

trvmen. 

the^  w'^'  '"f  r"*^'"'  '"'  '^'  '^*°^  P«P*™tion  for 

m  Oxford  and  Pans  as  inferior  in  rank-  The  num- 
bers in  arts  naturally  exceeded  those  in  aJi  the  higher 
faculties  combined.  "'gner 

T,h?  wl^'  '"',^''''  '^""^'^-  ^'^  "^  h^^nifwHd  philoso- 
phy was  usual  y  considered  chief.  This  required  of 
the  student,  already  a  master  of  arts,  seven  or  eigh 
years  of  study  and  the  acquisition  of  skill  in  disputing 
and  preaching.  Its  sole  studies  seem  to  have  be^n  2f 
Bible  and  the  four  books  of  -  Sentences  •  of  Peter  hi 
Lombard  a  famous  doctor  in  Paris  in  the  l^h  centurr 

rir    T?"?"''^  ■■  '^"  '-'"^  '"^^  authoritative  tS 
book  of  Theology.     To  these  the  '•  3„^  "  .f  xho,^ 

t^Zr'^^''^r'''''  'J^^lo?*".  w«  u>  some  c«e. 
*!^!flJ^^!l!^l^|[^fidat^^       master's  degr^ 


•  Deaifl^,  p  S(i  4s:i  Lr^  Op. 


51 


THEOLOGY;    LAW 


139 


«  .T.v  r..,.r.H|,uvcl  in  (•.,I.U.ri»'y-.s  SvlUhus) 


(138) 


had  mastered  the  Bible  and  the  Sentences,  **  he  must 
still  practise  himself  three  years  at  the  university  in 
disputing  and  preaching,  and  must  also  be  present  at 
disputations.''*  The  course  was  evidently  a  long  one, 
but  from  the  modern  point  of  view  its  length  was  more 
than  equalled  by  its  dry  formality  and  its  emptiness. 

In  civil  and  common  law,  the  subjects  were  the  com- 
pilations and  collections  of  the  Roman  law  that  had 
been  handed  down  from  the  time  of  Justinian,  and  the 
papal  Decretals,  with  comments  and  expositions  there- 
upon from  the  doctors,  and  with  abundant  disputa- 
tion, in  a  course  of  eight  or  even  ten  years,  after  which 
and  the  passing  of  examinations,  in  which  disputation 
played  a  large  part,  the  student  became  a  licentiate 
and  doctor  utrixisque  legis.  Roger  Bacon  complains  that 
in  his  day,  civil  law  had  too  great  attention  in  the  Eng- 
lish universities. 

The  professional  education  in  medicine  consisted  of 
a  preliminary  course  of  two  or  three  years  in  an  ele- 
mentary work,  some  book  on  practice,  and  certain  parts 
of  the  medical  writings  of  Avicenna.  a  celebrated 
Arabian  writer  on  medicine  and  philosophy  of  the  10th 
and  11th  century  who  had  made  a  more  than  usually 
systematic  statement  of  Greek  medical  ideas,  and 
whose  works  had  been  translated  into  Latin.  This  pre- 
liminary course,  which  admitted  to  the  baccalaureate, 
was  followed  by  five  or  six  years  study,  chiefly  of 
Galen  and  Hippocrates,  preparatory  to  the  doctorate. 
Thus  the  medical  course  was  of  seven  or  nine  years, 

♦See  von  Raumer.  Gesch.  der  Pad.  Vol.  IV.  p.  20.  etc.  For  the  require- 
ments in  sciences  in  England  see  Mullinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge 
from  the  Earliest  Time.  pp.  3B^-b:  also  Lyte,  History  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  p.  21&-223  for  all  the  faculties  including  theology. 


140 


THE   MEDIEVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


according  as  the  Student  was  or  was  nof.  .        a     . 
arts.     In  Cambridge  *},«  of  7  .  *  graduate  in 

arts,  and  must  have  atlf  .  ?'  """"^  ""'  '  ""^'^^  '"^ 
authors  at  least  fii  "l^'l  '"!"".*'"  ^^^^^"''^^ 
practice  for  the  doctorate  n  T'-^"'  ''^^  ^^«'« 
obligatory  even  here  buT.-  ^''P""'"""^  '^ere  also 
strations  are  not  m;nHnn  .°"'  T*^  anatomical  demon- 

in  English  uni:elStt;  S^rm^^  ^^^  ^°^'"^^^ 
In  the  12th  and   T^th         !  ""^  ^^"'^     '^n  practica  " . 

Montpellier   had   an   o  Jsh  Z '    '""^  ^"'--*^  of 
school  of  medicine,      "^'"'""'^"'^'"g  reputation  as   a 

from  the  opinion  that  t  welh'  If  ?  .T  ''"'''''^ 
]-8}n  the  several  science  haTof  it  f"f "?'  '""'- 
-at.ou.  The  surprise  that  win  douMlerb  '"""'" 
by  a  comparison  of  length  J.^'"'^^^^''  ^e  caused 
brevity  of  the  subjec  'mfttr  wS  TT'  "''"^  *^« 
^e  observe  the  method  ofZll  '  '"''"""'^  '^ben 

then  prevailed,  :S  l"^t;f  l'  '""'°^  ^'''^'^ 
necessary  by  circumstances  and  Ik  '  ''*'  '"*'^« 
controlling  cause  of  specialization  '"  ''''^'  ""'^  » 
would  hardly  suffice  for  Z!   !t      '  ''°'^  "  «'"g'«  '''e 

(2)  We  mus    a"   :  out  1      "^  *'"  ^^"'■^'^^• 
cient  nurseries  of  learnlr'n"'  ^°'""'  ^«  '^^^^^  »»- 
printing  had  not  ye    b  en    n'^:  V".  ""'  ''^  '"«'  '"-^ 
sequence  books  o'f  ever?  k  nd  t''  '"'  "^-^^  '"  '">- 

dear,  «ince  they  could  be'm'SlildlllT:.''"'  ^"^ 
process  of  transcribing      uZ  ^ !'^  ^^^  ^^^'^^^ 


METHOD   OF   TEACHING 


141 


tury,  the  library  of  the  Medici  in  Florence  had  less 
than  1,000  manuscripts,  and  the  Vatican  library  only 
about  5,000,  nearly  all  collected  with  vast  labor  and 
expense  after  a  new  spirit  had  begun  to  agitate  the 
turbid  depths  of  mediaeval  ideas.  Moreover,  the  human 
intellect,  though  now  aroused  to  a  remarkable  activity, 
was  still  far  from  emancipating  itself  from  the  habit  of 
a  servile  deference  to  authority  in  science  as  well  as  in 
religion. 

From  these  causes,  the  methods  of  instruction  that 
came  to  be  devised  were  dictation  from  manuscripts  of 
prescribed  subject  matter  which  students  were  to  copy 
and  memorize,  and  dialectic  disputations  on  these  by 
students  and  teachers  as  a  mental  gymnastic,  to  which 
was  added  a  third  expedient  soon  to  be  mentioned. 
With  regard  to  the  first,  we  may  quote  a  lively  descrip- 
tive paragraph  from  Karl  Schmidt,*  which,  though 
more  exactly  applicable  to  the  last  two  centuries  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  when  some  degeneracy  had  possibly 
crept  into  the  teaching  of  the  universities,  may  yet  by 
the  subtraction  of  a  little  coloring  be  considered  fairly 
descriptive  of  the  dictation  method  in  general. 

'*  According  to  the  expression  then  in 'vogue,  the 
professor  read  a  book  and  the  student  listened  to  a 
book.  To  lessen  labor  they  hit  upon  the  idea  of  pre- 
senting abstracts,  the  so-called  summaries  (mmmm), 
which  soon  entirely  supplanted  the  original  works. 
Into  the  narrow  frame  of  the  explanation  of  these  few 
books  must  be  crowded  everything  worth  knowing,  an 
artificial  process  which  led  to  all  sorts  of  subtleties  and 
strange  interpretations.     Hence  it  may  have  been  advis- 

♦Geschichte  der  P&dagojjik.  Vol.  II,  pp.  3^6-7. 


142 


THE    MEDI.f:VAL    UNIVERSITIES 


able  to  demand  dictation.     Therefore  the  statutes  of 
the   university   of    Vienna    required    of   every  reader 
*  that  he  should  dictate  honestly  and  exactly,  slowly 
and  distinctly,  so  indicating  the  paragraphs,  capitals, 
commas,  etc.,  as  the  sense  demands,  as  to  lighten  the 
labor  of  copying. '     In  this  dictation  the  students  were 
often  miserably  swindled.     The  dishonest  master  made 
use  of  unknown  writings  containing  many  errors,  or  of 
pretended  works  of  honored  masters  in  order  to  attract 
more  copyists,  and  also  dictated  recently-penned  books 
of  foreign  scholars.     The  students  were  not  to  be  out- 
done in  tricks.     In  Italy  many  young  men  made  use 
of  the  dictated  manuscripts  of  others,  studied  at  home 
and  so  saved  the  fees;  the  nobles  sent  their  servants' 
into  the  college  to  copy;  and   there   was  yet  lacking 
only  that  the  dictating  teachers  should  likewise  send 
their  servants  to  the  reading  desk." 

In  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  no  thought  on 
the  side  of  the  professors  of  presenting  the  results  of 
original  research  or  independent  thought.     All  is  ex- 
position  based  on  authority,  and  the  older  the  authority 
the  better.     It  was  rank   heresy  or  presumption,  for 
example,  to  question  the  authority  of  Aristotle;  and  it 
IS  related  of  an  old  professor  that  when  a  student  called 
his  attention  to  the  rumor  that  spots  had  been  seen  on 
the  sun,  he  replied,  -  There  can  be  no  spots  for  I  have 
read  Aristotle  twice  from   beginning   to  end,  and  he 
says  the  sun  is  incorruptible;  "  so,  with  an  injunction 
to  wipe  his  glasses  that  he  might  see  more  clearly,  the 
doubting  student  was  dismissed. 

For  the  students,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  place 
for  the  use  of  reason;  they  are  merely  to  copy  what 


DISPUTATIONS 


143 


is  given  and  to  cram  it  up  for  a  distant  examination 
or  for  use  as  indisputable  arguments  in  future  verbal 
conflicts.  Such  was  the  dictation  method  that  was  in 
vogue  in  the  mediaeval  universities,  its  essence  author- 
ity and  receptivity. 

In  the  correlative  disputation,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  was  real  movement  of  mind,  but  it  was  move^ 
ment  in  no  determined  direction,  stir  without  change 
of  place,  to  mark  time  but  not  to  advance.  These 
disputations,  which  were  shared  by  both  teachers  and 
students,  might  have  been  a  useful  expedient  in  the 
lack  of  books  for  bringing  to  notice  new  ideas  that  had 
been  originated  by  any  one,  thus  serving  as  a  medium 
of  publication;  or  for  defending  received  opinions 
against  unwarranted  novelties;  or  for  impressing 
strongly  what  had  been  learned,  by  its  use  in  lively 
discussion;  but  they  soon  degenerated  into  hair-split- 
ting distinctions,  into  verbal  duels  in  which  the  princi- 
pal fought  for  victory  rather  than  truth,  and  ''  made 
a  merit  of  being  able  to  prove  the  most  opposite  things 
with  equal  facility  "  from  the  same  premises,  or  **  of 
disputing  several  successive  days  about  nothing  with 
the  greatest  dialectic  skill  ". 

Empty  though  they  were,  these  verbal  battles,  we 
are  told,  were  waged  with  such  vigor  and  heat  that  it 
was  found  necessary  to  separate  the  contestants  by 
barriers  to  prevent  them  from  coming  to  blows.  Yet 
however  much  they  may  have  fostered  intellectual 
acuteness  and  mental  dexterity,  as  they  doubtless  did, 
they  were  very  far  from  encouraging  freedom  of 
thought ;  for  though  the  disputants  might  explain  away 
and  thus  minimize  the  force  of  received  ideas,  or  might 


144 


THE   MEDIEVAL    DIVERSITIES 


I 


question  their  application  to  the  case  in  hand,  they 
might  not  cast  doubt  upon  their  authority  in  gen  ral 
Hence  resulted,  in  the  words  of  von  Raumer  '"  hit 
dm  ect.c8   not  merely  in  the  philosophic  faculty  but  in 
ajl   acult.es  of  all  universities,  ruled  so  overmast'ering W 
hat  everywhere  the  interest  in  the  essential  impoft 
the  essenfal  truth,  and  the  essential  cultivation  oHh^ 
scientific  subjects  that  were  taught,  sunk  out  of  s  ght 
and  men  were  completely  satisfied  with  a  mere  formal 
dialectical  truth."*  mere  lormal 

Such  then  was  the  scholastic  method,  a  subtle  use  of 
he  machinery  of  formal  logic,  which,  at  first  appl  ed 
to  the  philosophic  questions  of  theology  in  attempts 
to  support  the  doctrines  of  the  church  afd  t^  recon  He 
dogma  with  reason,  spread  soon  to  all  the  ubZs  f 
the  university,  and  ififected  the  methods  of  al/c  a  ae 
of^schools  during  ttTl^r  centuries  of  the  uZl 

later""  in  Zl'tl'  '"'"''''''  '^'^^  ''''''^''  "^  London 
later  in  the  12th  century:  "  When  the  feast  of  the 

fchZ:"!':  '"'T''^':  ''^  '"''«'«"  convene  thei 
scholars.     The  youth  on  that  occasion  dispute,  some  in 

the  demonstrative   way,  and   some    logically      The  ^ 

produce  their  enthymemes  and  those  the  more  perfect 

BylIog,sms      Some,  the  better  to  show  their  parts  ar 

whlTol"  ''''"'*'"'^  '^^'^'^^^-^  -^h  oneCthe 
lav  of  1":  'r  '"*  r "  ««'''^>"«'^in^  ^ome  truth  by' 
way  of  illustration.  Some  sophists  endeavor  to  apulv 
on  feigned  topics  a  vast  heap  and  flow  of  words  oS 
to  impose  upon  you  with  false  conclusions  *  *  * 
i^i^^Z!jl^^i^!!!^if^h^olswrHngle  with  one  another 

♦  Qeschiohteder  Pftdagogik.  Vol.  IV,  p.  2^ " 


DISPUTATIONS 


145 


t  Zl'lT^rS:'  t?  *'^  P""^^P^-  "^  grammar 
tne  rules  of  the  perfect  tenses  and  supines  "* 

opinion  of  the  scholastic  methods  is  likplv  f^K 
siderablv  modifipH      n  •       ^"^  ,  ^^  ^^*^^^J  to  be  con- 
aujjr   moamed.     It  is  not  wholly  aurp  ihai  fv,^    - 

quite  the  contrary.     It  is  certain  that  in  that  a/e  Lv 

♦  Education  in  Early  Enj?lRnH   r.  ka   ■         77 " 

Text.  Soc.  ^  t-ngland,  p.  54,  in  publications  of  Early  English 


146 


THE    MEDI.€VAL    CXIVERSITIES 


If  we  find  in  them  little  or  nothing  that  would  be 
valuable  to  as,  it  would  not  be  quite  just  for  us,  meas- 
uring them  by  our  standards,  to  condemn  them  as 
absurd.  It  is  not  wholly  sure  that  future  ages  may 
not  Tis.t  a  like  judgment  on  some  of  our  favorite  means. 
In  this  regard  the  words  of  Mullinger  are  worthy 
of  our  consideration.* 

"  Their  earnestness  and  devotion  invest  with  a  certain 
dignity  even  their  obscure  and   errant  metaphysics 
their  interminable  logic,  their  artificial  theology",  and 
their  purely  hypothetical  science;   and  if  we  "reflect 
that  It  IS  far  from  improbable  that  in  some  future  era 
the  studies  now  predominant  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
may  seem  for  the  greater  part  as  much  ei«mples  of 
misplaced  energy  as  those  to  which  we  look  back  with 
such  pitying  contempt,  we  shall  perhaps  arrive  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  centuries  bring  us  no  nearer  to 
absolute  truth,  and  that  it  is  pursuit   rather  than  the 
prize,  the  subjective  discipline  rather  than  the  object- 
ive gain,  which  gives  to  all  culture  its  chief  meaning 
and  worth."  ^ 

A  third  expedient  for  assuming  the  mastery  of  the 
subjects  taught  remains  to  be  mentioned,  and  it  was 
wholly  admirable.  In  all  the  facilities  of  at  least  some 
of  the  universities,  the  bachelors  were  required  to 
alternate  their  higher  work  by  lecturing  to  those  less 
advanced  on  books  that  they  had  themselves.  They 
learned  by  teaching:  and  as  Mullinger  remarks,  "  the 
duties  of  the  lecture-room  and  the  dispnUtions  of  the 
schools  enabled  all  to  test  their  powers  and  weigh  their 
chances  of  practical  succcsa  long  before  the  period  of 


•  Th«  History  of  Cambr.d^-"  from  ib^  Ear 


f^-  m  >k,^ 


^   Vol  I. 


INTFRIoR  OF  A  NORMAN  SrH.Kjf.    iJth  «;KNTLRV.    (From  Cubberltry'. 

^  't«Tacot  in  \Vr  n*^,  of  fnb#»r   iMy*.    Tb*- teacher 

on  the  riuht  ii  I«^turinz.  with  two  writ#»r4  on  ih«  l^ft.) 


(147) 


INCEPTION 


149 


preparation  had  expired."  The  admission  of  the 
bachelor  to  the  right  and  duty  to  give  certain  lectures 
and  to  preside  over  disputations  was  called  inception 
or  commencing,  since  he  was  now  to  begin  to  teach  as 
well  as  to  learn. 

For  the  master,  inception  was  a  very  imposing  cere- 
mony, ending  with  his  receiving  the  insignia  of  his 
rank,  being  saluted  as  noster  magister,  and  being  em- 
powered to  teach  in  any  university.  In  some  univer- 
sities, if  not  in  all,  the  master  was  required,  if  called 
on,  to  give  ordinary  lectures  in  his  alma  mater  for  at 
least  a  year;  thus  the  right  of  teaching  was  also  a 
duty  which  might  be  imposed.  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  remark  that  inception  is  the  origin  of  our  modern 
commencement,  though  the  significance  that  com- 
mencing conveyed  to  a  mediaeval  student  has  been 
greatly  modified  in  later  times. 

Both  Lyte  and  Mullinger  speak  of  the  heavy  cost  of 
'*  inception  ",  and  of  taking  any  of  the  higher  degrees. 
The  former  says  p.  225:  **  The  cost  of  taking  a  degree 
in  theology,  or  indeed  in  any  of  the  superior  faculties, 
was  very  heavy.  Members  of  the  religious  orders, 
having  no  private  property,  were  therefore  unable  to 
become  doctors  without  the  aid  of  a  grant  from  their 
brethren  assembled  in  chapter.  In  1400,  the  convent 
of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  paid  no  less  than  £118 
38.  8d.  for  the  inception  of  two  Benedictine  monks, 
in  theology  and  in  canon  law  respectively.  The 
money  wag  spent,  partly,  in  the  entertainment  of  the 
regent  masters,  and  other  members  of  the  university." 
When  it  is  considered  that  at  this  time  the  purchase 
power  of  money  was  at  least  twelve  times  as  great  as 


150 


THE    MEDIEVAL    FNirEKSITIES 


at  present,  and  that  sons  of  wealthy  families  could  be 
respectably  maintained  at  Oxford  for  not  more  than 
£10  per  year,  it  will  be  apparent  how  grossly  exorbi- 
tant  were  such  expenses. 

(3)  In  giving  an  account  of  the  condition  of  morals 
in  the  early  universities,  von  Raumer  judiciously  re- 
minds us  by  an  apt  quotation,  that  while  the  evil  d'eeds 
of  the  vicious  and  reckless  make  a  prominent  figure  in 
the  records  of  the  times,  from  being  the  subjects  of 
warnings  and  punishments,  the  quiet  virtues  of  the 
well-ordered  and  studious  majority  who  grow  up  to  be 
the  pride  and  ornament   of  their  age  are  unrecorded, 
and  so  are  likely  to  be  left  out  of  the  account  when  we 
make  up  our  estimate  of  the  general  character  of  these 
ancient  institutions.     With  this  caution  he  cites  for  us 
those  pages  in  the  statues  of  the  universities  of  Paris 
and  \'ienna,  taken  as  typical,  which  concern  the  mor- 
als of  students  and  professors,  remembering  that  what 
is  prohibited  has  quite  probably  occurred  in  the  uni- 
versities.* 

In  Paris  such  vices  are  denounced  as  thieving,  house- 
breaking,  abduction  of  giris,  and  aasaagi nation,  besides 
some  crimes  too  shameful  to  admit  of  mention.  A 
papal  bull  of  12:6  denounces  excommunication  against 
those  Paris  students  who  were  guilty  of  various  forms 
of  sacrileore. 

The  statutes  of  Vienna  are  not  aimed  at  such  glar- 
ing crimes  as  are  those  of  Paris,  a  fact  which  possibly 
bespeaks  some  amelioration  of  manners  during  the 
centuries  which  elapsed  between  the  rise  of  the  Uni- 


MORALS 


151 


f 


casion,  TL  !0-  t'a  4?  ^ 


noMgofik.  vo:  IV  p.  a    batham  §  j 


versity  of  Paris  and  the  foundation  of  that  of  Vienna; 
still  theological  students  in  Vienna  are  warned  not  to  be 
drunkards  and  debauchees;  students  of  law  are  en- 
joined to  be  quiet  at  lectures,  not  to  shout,  yell  and 
hiss,  and  to  avoid  the  company  of  infamous  persons, 
brawlers  and  gamblers;  and  the  students  in  general 
are  naively  bidden  "  not  to  spend  more  time  in  tippling 
places,  in  fights,  and  in  guitar-playing  than  they  de- 
vote to  physics,  logic,  and  college  studies."  Expul- 
sion is  denounced  against  such  students  as  after  warn- 
ing are  guilty  of  drunkenness,  thieving,  gambling, 
insulting  citizens,  and  making  night  hideous  with 
student  songs,  and  especially  against  such  as  break 
in  doors. 

Evidently  therefore  the  state  of  morals  and  manners 
among  the  uneasy  spirits  in  these  old  universities  was 
not  an  ideal  one,  not  better  than  that  of  the  ages  in 
which  such  offences  occurred.  I  do  not  mention  such 
ordinarv  matters  as  riotous  collisions  between  *'  town 

m 

and  gown  '\  which,  from  the  common  practice  of  carry- 
ing weapons,  frequently  ended  in  bloodshed. 

In  Paris  and  Oxford  where  many  of  the  students 
were  still  very  young,  the  collection  of  the  students, 
which  was  somewhat  early  begun,  into  halls  and  en- 
dowed colleges  where  they  lived  under  some  oversight, 
did  much  to  correct  some  of  the  worst  disorders.  In 
imitation  of  Paris,  some  of  the  older  German  universi- 
ties established  what  were  called  Burses,  or  authorized 
lodging  houses,  where  the  students  were  placed  under 
the  charge  of  a  rector  who  was  to  exercise  a  strict 
oversight  over  them  and  to  aid  them  in  their  studies. 
But  the  rectors,  to  entice  students  to  their  houses. 


152 


THE   MEDIEVAL   UKIVERSITIE8 


wmked  at  their  vices  or  even  shared  them,  retailed  beer 
to  them  at  a  large  profit,  and  grew  rich  by  the  neglect 
of  their  duties.*  These  Burses,  having  no  endow- 
ments, have  long  since  disappeared,  leaving  no  trace 
of  their  former  existence  save  the  term  Bursche  ap- 
plied to  university  students.  Not  so  the  endowed 
colleges  of  Paris  and  the  English  universities,  which 
came  in  time  to  overshadow  the  universities  of  which 
they  were  members. 

In  Paris  we  are  told  that  besides  the  punishments 
inflicted  by  the  university  in  its  municipal  capacity 
flogging  was  commonly  resorted  to  even  so  late  as  the 
15th  century,  bachelors  as  well  as  under-graduates  in 
arts  being  thrashed  for  their  ofifences. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that  in 
Bologna,  where  the  students  were  older  and  were 
themselves  the  governing  body,  a  much  better  condi- 
tion of  morals  and  manners  seems  to  have  prevailed. 

Yet  coarse  and  even  shocking  as  much  that  is  re- 
ported seems  to  our  modern  idea,  it  is  quite  probable 
that  as  a  whole  it  stands  in  much  the  same  relation  to 
the  general  tone  and  standard  of  life  and  conduct  of 
the  period  in  which  it  was  true  of  the  universities,  as 
student  pranks  in  other  ages  stand  to  the  morals  and 
manners  of  their  times.     It  always  has  been  true  and 
possibly  always  will  be  true,  that  young  fellows  just 
released  from  home  restraints  and  enjoying  their  first 
taste  of  complete  freedom  and  self-direction,  have  dis- 
played a  certain  amount  of  exuberance  and  extrava- 
gance of  spirit,  extravagance  because  it  overleaps  to 
some  extent  the  general  standard  of  conduct  of  the 

•von  Raumer,  Op.  olt.,  Vol.  IV.,  p~aft 


f 


AS   AN   EDUCATIVE   AGENCY 


153 


age,  but  always    doubtless    has  reference  to  it  even 
while  transgressing  it. 

If  therefore  the  conduct  of  mediaeval  students  seems 
to  us  coarse  and  rude  even  to  the  point  of  repulsive- 
ness,  it  was  because  the  times  were  still  marked  by 
the  same  characteristics  though  in  a  somewhat  less 
degree.  If  the  college-boy  of  to-day  no  longer  carries 
weapons,  nor  engages  in  bloody  broils,  nor  breaks 
into  houses,  nor  thieves  nor  gambles  nor  abducts, 
this  fact  is  due  not  so  much  to  any  change  in  youthful 
human  nature,  as  to  the  enormous  advances  in  civiliz- 
ation and  refinement  which  the  latest  centuries  have 
brought  in  their  train. 

(4)  Besides  their  direct  and  intended  influence  in 
promoting  a  certain  style  of  learning  which  probably 
was  suited  to  the  times  and  made  use  of  the  best 
means  that  were  then  available,  and  which  thus  by  its 
conformity  to  the  state  and  means  of  culture  did  much 
to  prepare  for  a  better  future  culture,  the  universities 
indirectly  and  without  conscious  intention  did  import- 
ant services  as  a  civilizing  and  educative  agency.  Let 
ns  here  briefly  indicate  some  of  these  incidental 
services. 

(a)  They  brought  young  men  from  widely  distant 
countries,  marked  by  the  greatest  diversities  in  modes 
of  living  and  thinking,  into  the  most  intimate  rela- 
tions, at  an  age  in  which  the  most  vivid  of  lasting  im- 
pressions are  made.  From  this  association  they  not 
only  gained  some  ideas  of  European  geography  and 
history  which  were  then  but  very  little  known,  but 
also  by  their  intercourse  wore  away  much  of  !iheir 
provincialism  of  manners  and  feeling;  they  came  to 


154 


THE    MEDIEVAL    UNIVERSITIES 


EFFECT   UPON   THE    LOWER   SCHOOLS 


155 


recognize  with  the  ready  instinct  of  youth  the  points 
of  superiority,  each  of  the  other;  and  thus  what  ever 
of  strength  and  refinement  then  existed  anywhere 
came  to  be  blended  into  a  European  type  of  character. 
This  was  ultimately  borne  by  every  student  to  his  own 
home,  where  he  became  a  centre  of  influence  to  his 
fellows. 

The  importance  of  this  fact  can  hardly  be  overesti- 
mated; nor  can  that  of  a  fact  closely  allied  to  it,  viz., 
the  counteraction  that  the  freedom  of  travel  and  the 
protection  guaranteed  to  students  and  their  servants 
wrought  against  what  still  survived  of  the  isolating 
spirit  of  feudalism.  With  the  guarantee  of  safety  of 
travel  to  those  who  were  in  that  age  the  most  efficient 
agents  for  the  spread  of  whatever  civilizing  ideas  then 
,  existed,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  most  harmful 
feature  of  feudalism,  its  isolating  tendency,  already 
undermined  by  the  Crusades,  was  doomed  to  speedy 
extinction. 

(b)  The  universities  taught  the  lesson,  greatly 
needed  in  that  rude  age,  of  the  supremacy  of  human 
reason  over  mere  brute  force.  In  this  they  became 
the  efficient  coadjutors  of  the  church,  which  had  long 
been  the  sole  power  that  enforced  respect  without 
resort  to  armed  violence. 

The  spiritual  power  of  the  church,  however,  was 
reinforced  by  supernatural  and  superstitious  terrors. 
This  new  power  had  no  such  adventitious  aids.  It 
gained  its  influence  ;by  the  mere  superiority  which 
trained  intellect  has  over  brute  force,  through  sagacity, 
through  foresight,  through  command  of  resources  in 
unlocked  for  exigencies.     By  such  qualities  the  nurse- 


\ 


lings  of  the  universities,  trained  though  they  were 
under  an  imperfect  system,  yet  trained,  gradually  at- 
tained a  supremacy  which  supplanted  the  reign  of 
violence  and  gave  a  vast  impulse  to  European  civili- 
zation. 

(c)  Furthermore  the  universities  promoted  and  shaped 
general  education    through  that   pervasive  influence 
which  higher  centres  of  learning  inevitably  exert  upon 
all  lower  schools.     For  they  not  only  furnished  teach- 
ers for  such  schools  and  supplied  them  with  their  in- 
tellectual equipment,  but  also  by  reason  of  whatever 
standard  of  attainment  they  set  up,  they  directed  the 
minds  of  both  teachers  and  pupils  to  the  mark  which 
they  should  strive  to  reach.     Thus  we  have  seen  al- 
ready how  soon  the  scholastic  methods  of  the  universi- 
ties had  made  their  way  into  the  schools  of  London, 
80  that  the  sons  of  teachers  and  craftsmen  strove  to 
fit  themselves  for  the  probable  pursuit  of  their  fath- 
ers' callings  by  gaining  dexterity  in  subtle  argumenta- 
tion.    To  this  may  be  added  that  the  requirements  for 
entering  on  university  work  made  it  necessary  that 
whatever  lower  schools  existed  should  fit  their  pupiJs 
to  meet  these  requirements,  and  thus  gave  an  indirect 
but  powerful  impulse  towards  something  higher  even 
to  these  pupils  who  had  no  intention  to  enter  the 
university. 

We  have  seen  also  in  the  case  of  Guibert  de 
Nogent  how  great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  the 
age  immediately  preceding  the  rise  of  universities  in 
finding  teachers  fitted  for  even  the  humblest  kind  of 
teaching.  By  supplying  this  want  the  universities 
doubtless  gave  a  very  considerable  impulse  to  the  estab- 


.  # 


156 


THE   MEDIiflVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


liahment  of  schools,  and  thus  to  the  spread  of  educa- 
tion; whilst  the  rapid  multiplication  of  universities 
already  mentioned  testifies  eloquently  to  the  spread  of 
intelligence,  and  to  the  growth  of  desires  which  could 
be  satisfied  only  by  a  considerable  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  local  schools.  The  high  estimate  that  was 
placed  on  the  licencia  docendi  conferred  by  the  univers- 
ity, probably  the  sole  degree  for  two  centuries,  shows 
clearly  the  direction  in  which  university  instruction 
was  tending;  and  though,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
elementary  schools  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  tardy 
in  their  growth,  there  was  doubtless  a  vast  increase  in 
family  education  through  private  tutorships. 

{d)  The  last  of  the  indirect  benefits  conferred  by 
the  universities  was  certainly  wholly  unintentional, 
since  while  emphasizing  authority  and  servilely  defer- 
ring to  it,  they  yet,  by  their  dialectic  disputations, 
trained  men  to  doubt  everything,  authority  included, 
and  thus  paved  the  way  unwittingly  for  that  spirit  of 
free  inquiry  which  has  done  so  much  in  the  past  few 
centuries  for  every  department  of  knowledge. 

To  this  may  be  added  that  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely 
that  the  organized  self-government  which  characterized 
the  ancient  universities,  whether  in  its  more  democratic 
form  as  in  Bologna,  where  the  student  associations 
were  the  source  of  authority,  or  in  the  more  aristo- 
cratic form  which  it  assumed  in  Paris  under  the  sway 
of  the  regent  masters,  codperated  with  the  example  of 
the  guilds  in  generating  in  men's  minds,  slowly  but 
surely,  more  democratic  ideas  and  truer  conceptions  of 
the  rightful  source  of  governmental  authority. 
This  brief  account  of  the  services  of  the  mediaeval 


•i) 


i 


INVENTION   OF    PRINTING 


157 


universities  could  not  be  more  truthfully  concluded 
than  by  quoting  a  sentence  from  Denifl^.*  *'  The 
Middle  Ages  need,  in  truth,  no  excuse  for  not  having 
accomplished  everything,  since  perfection  even  to-day 
after  six  or  seven  centuries  has  not  been  reached. 
Just  at  the  present  time  we  are  involved  in  manifold 
doubt  as  to  the  best  way  to  set  about  reforming  our 
higher  institutions  of  learning;  although  we  should 
soon  reach  greater  certainty  by  the  adoption  of  a  prin- 
ciple which  the  Middle  Ages  instinctively  applied,  but 
which  in  later  times  has  alas!  been  too  often  neglected, 
viz.,  that  the  new  should  rest  upon  the  old,  and  that 
the  old  should  remain  living  in  the  new." 

(5)  Our  final  topic  in  treating  of  the  mediaeval  uni- 
versities relates  to  the  changes  wrought  in  them  by 
the  invention  of  printing,  the  introduction  and  cheap- 
ening of  linen  paper,  and  the  revival  of  interest  in 
classical  literature.  These  facts  which,  occurring  in 
the  15th  century,  brought  to  an  end  the  mediaeval 
period,  revolutionized  the  subject-matter  and  methods 
of  the  universities,  though  not  without  a  vigorous 
struggle,  and  deeply  affected  their  very  organization. 

It  would  be  difficult  for  us  fully  to  conceive  how 
profound  was  the  change  produced  by  the  invention 
of  printing  and  by  the  introduction  of  linen  paper 
into  common  use  which  took  place  at  nearly  the  same 
time.f     Heretofore,   not  only  had  transcription  been 


/ 


•  Die  Univ.  deg  Mittelalters,  p.  7W. 

t  Hallam'8  Middle  Ages,  C.  IX,  Pt.  2d.,  and  Hattenbach,  Das  Schrlftwesen 
des  Mittelalters.  p.  114-123,  both  indicate  that  though  paper  was  known  from 
Arabian  sources  as  early  as  the  12th  century,  it  was  little  used  till  the  16th. 
See  Quentin  Durward,  C.  X.  Ill  for  vivid  statement  of  eflfect  of  printing. 


158 


THE   MEDIEVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


slow  and  costly,  but  the  material  on  which  to  write 
was  also  costly,  both  causes  preventing  a  rapid  multi- 
plication of  books.  Henceforth  all  this  was  changed, 
in  many  ways. 

Most  obviously,  it  made  no  longer  indispensable  the 
tedious  work  of  dictation  and  copying  with  subsequent 
memorizing.  As  the  professors  might  no  longer  dic- 
tate from  works  that  would  be  in  every  hand,  they  were 
remitted  to  the  necessity,  if  they  read  at  all,  of  doing 
some  work  which  bore  the  stamp  of  their  own  person- 
ality, and  of  submitting  it  to  the  test  of  a  ready  com- 
parison with  the  works  of  honored  authors.  Thus 
professors  were  stimulated  to  work  as  they  had  never 
been  before.  They  dictated  indeed,  and  in  some  cases 
have  continued  to  do  so  down  to  the  present  century, 
but  it  has  been  from  work  which  they  have  done  them- 
selves. 

However,  the  old  subtle  hair-splitting  habits  long 
remained  and  led  to  what  has  been  called  **  the  aca- 
demic art  of  spinning  ".  As  an  example  of  this  we 
are  told  of  a  professor  in  Vienna  that  **  he  lectured 
twenty-two  years  on  the  first  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and 
was  surprised  by  death  before  he  was  done." 

On  the  part  of  students,  the  release  from  copying 
and  to  some  extent  from  memorizing,  both  gave  more 
opportunity  for  the  use  of  the  higher  powers  of  the 
intellect,  and  greatly  lessened  the  time  needed  for  ac- 
quiring knowledge. 

We  have  already  seen  how  long  was  the  time  and  how 
meagre  the  knowledge  under  the  old  regime.  Fur- 
thermore, access  to  books  made  it  no  longer  necessary 
for  students  to  undertake  long  journeys,  that  they 


INVENTION    OF    PRINTING 


159 


might  hear  the  words  of  famous  masters  from  their 
own  lips.  Through  the  medium  of  print  they  might 
enjoy  the  wisdom  of  such  masters  at  home  and  be 
spared  the  vexations  and  expense  of  travel.  This  fact 
doubtless  had  a  tendency  to  diminish  somewhat  the 
numbers  that  flocked  to  special  universities,  or  at  least 
to  make  their  clientage  more  largely  local. 

A  further  consequence  was,  that  under  the  new  or- 
der of  things  introduced  by  printing  fewer  professors 
were  required  than  before.  This  had  a  double  effect; 
for  the  students  it  meant  diminished  fees;  for  the  uni- 
versities, a  more  select  teaching  force  by  the  retention 
of  only  the  more  highly  gifted  and  learned  masters 
whilst  the  less  efficient  were  dispensed  with.  That 
the  multiplication  of  masters  who  were  often  of  very 
inferior  character,  and  the  consequent  increased  ex- 
pense of  students,  had  grown  to  be  great  evils  in  the 
mediaeval  universities,  and  that  these  evils  were  slow 
in  yielding  to  the  new  order  of  things,  may  be  clearly 
seen  in  the  ''  Advertissemens  au  Roy  "  of  the  famous 
Ramus  in  1562  with  regard  to  the  university  of  Paris.* 

Such  were  the  more  obvious  effects  produced  on  the 
universities  by  the  invention  of  printing  in  the  15th 
century.  It  may  readily  be  seen  that  they  were  im- 
portant in  a  high  degree,  affecting  their  methods  of 
teaching  and  their  efficiency,  the  expenses  of  instruc- 
tion and  its  breadth  of  influence. 

The  revival  of  interest  in  classical  literature  and  its 
growing  use  in  instruction  wrought  changes  in  all 
classes  of  schools  quite  as  weighty  as  those  that  have 


♦  Waddington.  Vie  de  Ramus,  pp.  141  and  409. 


160 


THE   MEDIEVAL   UNIVERSITIES 


just  been  mentioned, — changes  in  the  subject-matter 
of  arts  studies  in  all  schools,  universities  included; 
still  further  changes  in  method  by  the  abolition  or  the 
lessening  of  scholastic  disputation;  changes  also  in 
parts  of  the  organization  of  many  universities,  espec- 
ially those  in  Germany. 

Wuh  the  general  subject  of  the  struggle  of  classic- 
ism for  supremacy  in  education  and  its  final  triumph, 
we  have  nothing  to  do  just  now ;  since  for  the  sake  of 
clearness  and  orderliness  of  view  as  to  the  sequence  of 
events  it  is  essential  that  we  should  limit  ourselves 
strictly  to  that  which  belongs  to  the  period  antecedent 
to  1500  A.  D.  But  the  revival  of  interest  in  Greek 
and  Roman  literature  which  began  in  Italy  in  the  time 
of  Petrarch  took  on  great  proportions  during  the  15th 
century;  what  it  was  likely  to  do  for  the  universities 
began  now  to  be  seen,  and  it  is  fitting  here  to  state 
briefly  its  obvious  tendencies. 

It  would  obviously  arouse  a  virulent  but  futile  oppo- 
sition. It  would  revolutionize  the  arts  studies  by 
driving  out  scholasticism  as  empty  and  outworn,  and 
by  the  introduction  of  the  literature  of  classical  an- 
tiquity in  place  of  the  barbarous  Latin  and  monkish 
homilies  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  would  complete  the 
revolution  in  method,  by  installing  real  observation 
and  reasoning  based  thereon  in  the  place  of  hair-split- 
ting definitions  and  distinctions,  and  by  substituting 
for  barren  disputation  with  it3  mechanical  readiness 
in  the  use  of  words  and  empty  abstractions,  a  truly 
developing  exposition  of  the  best  products  of  human 
genius.  By  the  disuse  of  disputation  with  its  need  of 
incessant  practice  it  would  make  no  longer  necessary 


CLASSICISM 


161 


for  this  purpose  the  associated  life  of  colleges  and 
burses,  thus  slowly  effecting  changes  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  universities  in  which  these  were  unendowed. 
The  fulness  of  these  momentous  changes  belongs  to 
a  later  period,  but  its  beginnings  may  now  be  seen, 
and  hence  have  been  mentioned  in  concluding  our 
review  of  the  early  universities. 


CHAPTER  VII 

^  CLOSE   OF   MEDIAEVAL   EDUCATION 

The  schools  other  than  the  universities  during  the 
four  centuries  that  we  have  under  review  will  need 
no  very  extended  description.  Indeed  Compayr^  says 
in  his  History  of  Pedagogy  that,  '*  save  claustral  and 
cathedral  schools,  to  which  must  be  added  some  parish 
schools,  the  earliest  examples  of  our  village  schools, 
the  sole  educational  establishment  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  what  is  called  the  university.'' 

This  statement,  which  may  be  correct  as  regards 
France,  though  even  there  the  parish  schools  were  so 
numerous  that  in  1380  there  were  63  teachers  of  this 
class  in  Paris  alone,  is  somewhat  too  sweeping  when 
applied  to  Germany,  the  Low  Countries,  and  England. 

Equally  too  favorable  a  view  is  conveyed  by  a  state- 
ment attributed  to  Roger  Bacon,  ''  that  there  had 
never  been  so  great  an  appearance  of  learning  and  so 
general  an  application  to  study  in  so  many  different 
faculties  as  in  this  time  (the  13th  century),  when 
schools  were  erected  in  every  city,  town,  burgh,  and 
castle." 

There  can  indeed  be  little  doubt  that  in  England, 
during  the  last  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages,  larger 
provisions  were  made  for  the  education  of  the  wealth- 
ier classes  than  elsewhere,  not  only  in  the  monastic 
and  cathedral  schools,  but  also  by  private  schools  and 

(162) 


LOWER   SCHOOLS 


163 


tutors,  by  city  schools,  and  the  endowed  grammar 
schools,  of  which  at  least  thirty  antedate  1500,  includ- 
ing such  still  famous  schools  as  Eton  and  Winchester; 
yet  all  this  would  hardly  warrant  such  breadth  of 
statement  as  is  attributed  to  Bacon. 

In  Germany  and  Switzerland  the  old  monastic  schools 
seem  to  have  fallen  largely  into  decay.  The  Benedict- 
ine cloisters  had  so  greatly  declined  that,  even  in  St. 
Gall,  which  had  earlier  been  famous  as  a  seat  of  learn- 
ing, but  a  single  monk  could  be  found  in  1291  who 
could  read  and  write.* 

The  cathedral  schools  also  declined  for  a  time,  but 
in  the  13th  century  there  was  in  them  a  marked  revi- 
val of  interest,  old  schools  were  improved,  and  many 
new  ones  were  founded  under  church  auspices  in  the 
more  important  cities,  devoted  however  almost  solely  to 
the  education  of  the  clergy  and  of  such  sons  of  nobles 
as  rose  above  the  contempt  of  learning  that  prevailed 
in  this  class ;  such  scanty  instruction  as  was  vouchsafed 
in  them  to  poor  children  was  confined  to  the  church 
catechism. 

As  has  earlier  been  said,  city  organizations  sprang 
up  later  in  Germany  than  in  Italy  and  France;  but 
when  they  did  arise,  the  growing  industries  of  the 
cities  soon  made  apparent  to  the  more  opulent  class 
the  need  of  a  culture  suited  to  their  wants,  a  practi- 
cal education  adapted  to  fit  men  for  their  worldly 
duties  as  artisans  and  citizens. 

Hence  during  the  13th  and  14th  centuries,  many 
schools  were  founded  by  the  magistracy  of  nearly  all 
cities,  in  which  were  taught  reading,  writing,  reckon- 

•DitteB,  Schule  der  Pftdagogik,  Pt.  4,  §  20. 


164 


CLOSE   OF   MEDIJCVAL   EDUCATION 


4 


ing,  and  some  elements  of  Latin.  Such  schools  were 
sometimes  called  **  writing  schools  '*.  The  clergy 
naturally  claimed  jurisdiction  over  these  schools,  and 
seem  always  to  have  maintained  their  rights  of  super- 
vision; but  in  not  a  few  instances  the  quarrels  between 
clergy  and  magistrates  which  grew  out  of  this  claim 
were  detrimental  to  the  schools.  Any  instruction 
beyond  the  merest  elements  was  still  confined  to  the 
church;  and  in  this,  increasing  numbers  of  sons  of  the 
wealthier  citizens  shared,  impelled  by  the  ambition  to 
vie  with  the  nobility.* 

Outside  of  the  cities,  little  seems  to  have  been  done 
even  for  the  elementary  religious  instruction  of  the 
poorer  classes  during  these  centuries,  so  that  the  ex- 
amination into  the  conditon  of  the  rural  regions  made 
by  Melanchthon  and  Luther  early  in  the  16th  century, 
reveals  a  deplorable  ignorance  which  Luther  depicts 
in  his  vigorous  way. 

In  the  Low  Countries,  the  chapter  schools  which 
were  converted  later  into  municipal  schools,  and  in 
which  instruction  in  grammar,  music,  and  morals  was 
carried  far  enough  to  admit  to  the  universities,  to- 
gether with  some  elementary  schools,  did  valuable  ser- 
vice in  dispelling  ignorance. 

The  most  noteworthy  service  to  general  education 
in  northern  Europe,  however,  grew  out  of  the  efforts 
of  Gerhard  Groot  (+1384)  of  Deventer  in  Holland. 
Born  in  easy  circumstances,  and  highly  educated  in 
the  lore  of  the  times,  he  gained  his  master^s  degree  at 
an  early  age  and  devoted  himself  for  some  years  to  an 


*  Specht,  Geschichte  des  UnierrichuweteDs  Id  Deuuchland  bis  12S0.  pp. 
246-2&4. 


Ll'THFR.  USi-IM6 


M  K L A  N  i  H  i  Ho N .  1 4t*7-  I.VH) 
p:4^f  |(V4 


$«e  page  IQB 


THOMAS  PLATTKR.  M99-1582 
S»^  pasr**  171 


(165) 


ASCHAM.  15l«:'-15«i8 
Se*?  page  171 


THE    HIER0NYMIAN8 


167 


easy  yet  studious  life.  Possibly  from  the  nature  of 
his  studies,  he  conceived  a  disgust  for  the  emptiness 
of  his  life,  became  an  ascetic,  and  preached  with  great 
effect  in  the  vernacular  until  he  was  silenced  by  the 
hostility  of  the  monks.  Then  he  founded  a  peculiar 
society,  the  ''  Brotherhood  of  the  Common  Life  ", 
called  also  Hieronymians.  The  members  of  this 
society  had  all  things  in  common  and  were  bound  by 
no  irrevocable  vows.  They  supported  themselves  by 
the  labor  of  their  own  hands,  mostly  through  the  mul- 
tiplication of  books  by  transcription  until  the  intro- 
duction of  printing  superseded  this  form  of  industry. 
They  had  an  especial  regard  for  religious  culture,  to 
further  which  they  translated  the  Bible  and  the  service 
books  into  the  mother  tongue  that  they  might  be 
brought  to  the  understanding  of  the  people.  They 
were  distinguished  likewise  for  their  dislike  of  scho- 
lastic subtleties.* 

The  order  grew  and  its  houses  multiplied  rapidly  in 
the  countries  of  northern  Europe.  The  ,  rothers 
devoted  themselves  with  especial  zeal  to  the  .  istruc- 
tion  of  the  young.  Schools  were  connected  with  all 
their  houses,  besides  which  they  rounded  schools  or 
taught  in  those  already  established.  While  laying 
special  emphasis  on  religions  teaching,  they  did  not 
neglect  literary  culture,  and  when  the  new  classical 
learning  became  known  they  were  its  effective  advo- 
cates and  its  best  teachers.  Florentius  Radewin 
(+U00)  succeeded  Groot,  and  Gerard  of  Zutphen  aided 
Florentius  working  for  translating  the  Scriptures  to 

•  Von  Kaumer,  Gesch.  der  Pftd,  L.  p.  54-60  and  Schmidt,  Gesch.  der  PSd. 
II.  p,  329.     Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  iv.  652. 


/ 


168 


CLOSE   OF   MEDIAEVAL   EDUCATION 


vernacular.  Poor  boys  and  girls  were  often  objects 
of  their  special  care  and  nurture.  During  the  two 
centuries  of  their  activity,  they  undoubtedly  did  much 
for  the  spread  of  learning  in  northern  Europe.  The 
most  celebrated  of  those  once  their  pupils  were  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  Rudolph  Agricola,  Erasmus  and  Sturm, 
the  last  three  of  whom  became  eflBcient  promoters  of 
the  cause  of  classical  learning,  whilst  the  first  is  known 
to  entire  Christendom  by  his  *'  Imitation  of  Christ  ".* 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  give  a  concise  sketch  of 
the  condition  of  European  education,  aside  from  the 
universities,  during  the  closing  centuries  of  the  Mid- 
dle Agei^.  It  is  obvious  that,  while  not  reaching  very 
deep  in  point  of  generality,  it  yet  extends  somewhat 
widely  and  has  in  it  a  promise  of  better  things  to 
come.  It  is  likewise  obvious  that  it  does  not  justify 
any  sweeping  assertions,  either  as  to  its  lack  or  as  to 
its  universal  diffusion. 

Little  need  be  added  regarding  the  method  that  pre- 
vailed in  these  schools.  Whatever  of  change  is  to  be 
found  from  the  methods  of  earlier  ages,  is  in  the  di- 
rection of  scholasticism,  save  among  the  brethren  of 
Deventer.  The  principles  if  not  the  practices  of 
scholasticism,  and  its  paramount  emphasis  of  au- 
thority, are  to  be  seen  everywhere.  Dictation,  which 
in  the  most  favorable  cases  assumes  somewhat  the 
form  of  oral  instruction,  must  necessarily  prevail 
where  books  are  few;  pupils  must  copy  from  dictation; 
and,  since  they  are  to  be  expected  to  reproduce  what 

*A  good  account  of  this  order  may  be  found  in  Barnard's  American 
Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  IV,  p.  622,  translated  from  von  Raumer,  Ges- 
chichte  der  P&dagogik,  Vol.  1,  pp.  51,  etc. 


SCHOOL    ACCOMODATIONS    AND   MASTERS 


169 


has  been  given  them,  they  are  but  too  likely  to  mem- 
orize without  any  too  anxious  efforts  to  understand. 
Improvements  in  what  seem  to  us  tedious,  ineffective, 
and  time-wasting  methods,  must  await  the  advent  of 
books  and  the  coming  of  that  happier  age  when  reform 
should  be  the  order  of  the  day,  as  in  other  things,  so 
also  in  the  subjects,  the  methods,  and  the  spirit  of  the 
schools. 

Aside  from  the  universities,  it  is  probable  that  few 
or  no  buildings  dedicated  solely  to  school  purposes, 
were  erected  in  Europe,  until  near  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  From  the  intimate  connection  of  the 
schools  with  the  church,  they  were  naturally  held  in 
buildings  devoted  chiefly  to  religious  uses,  and  which 
had  little  or  no  reference  to  the  conveniences  or  com- 
fort of  school  children.  Possibly  this  remark  may  not 
apply  to  all  of  the  English  endowed  grammar  schools 
which  originated  in  the  IMh  and  15th  centuries,  nor 
to  some  of  the  German  city  schools;  yet  the  accounts 
that  have  been  preserved  of  the  equipment  even  of  the 
universities,  which  the  elementary  schools  could  hardly 
be  expected  to  excel,  show  how  little  regard  was  paid 
to  comfort.  School  accommodations  indeed  smacked 
strongly  of  the  asceticism  in  the  midst  of  which  Chris- 
tian education  had  originated. 

As  were  the  school  accommodations  so  were  the 
school-masters  of  this  period.  With  some  honorable 
exceptions  in  the  case  of  a  few  devoted  parish  priests, 
and  among  the  Dominicans,  the  Franciscans,  and  the 
Brethren  of  Deventer,  the  ranks  of  elementary  teach- 
ers were  largely  recruited,  as  they  have  too  often  been 
in   later  days,   from   the  failures   in   other  callings. 


170 


CLOSE   OF   MEDIAEVAL   EDUCATION 


Many  of  them  were  engaged  only  for  brief  periods, 
were  miserably  but  probably  adequately  paid  for  their 
inefficient  services,  and  wandered  from  place  to  place 
seeking  employment,  a  poor,  despised,  and  too  often 
immoral  class. 

Most  prominent  among  these  vagabond  school-mas- 
ters was  a  somewhat  numerous  class  of  wanderers 
called  Vagants  or  Bacchants.  This  class  had  its  origin 
in  the  privilege  of  safe  conduct  granted  to  the  univer- 
sities for  their  travelling  students.  This  privilege, 
which  was  peculiarly  liable  to  abuse  by  the  idle  and 
vicious,  seems  very  early  to  have  bred  a  set  of  tramps 
amongst  men  of  some  little  university  education  but 
of  depraved  tastes,  who  used  the  name  of  travelling 
students  to  derive  alms  from  the  charitable,  and  more 
especially  from  the  parish  priests,  whom  they  occasion- 
ally aided  in  teaching  the  children  of  the  parish  and 
in  other  duties.  Claiming  the  privileges  of  clergy 
their  lewd  Latin  songs  and  their  discreditable  con- 
duct soon  disgusted  even  the  coarse  age  in  which  they 
lived.  As  early  as  the  13th  century  they  had  become 
so  intolerable  a  nuisance  that  some  bishops  and  abbots 
caused  them  to  be  met  with  cudgels  instead  of  alms; 
and  about  the  end  of  this  century  the  church  author- 
ities forbade  the  parish  clergy  to  aid  the  Goliards,  as 
they  were  called  at  first,  in  any  way,  and  denounced 
weighty  penalties  in  case  of  disobedience.* 

But  though  checked  for  a  time  by  such  vigorous 
measures,  these  vagabond  scholars  were  by  no  means 
suppressed.  They  reappeared  in  the  following  cen- 
turies, known  now  as  Vagants  from  their  roving  mode 

♦Specht,  Gesch.  des  Unterrichtswesens,  etc.,  pp.  198-201. 


BACCHANTS 


171 


of  life,  and  even  more  frequently  as  Bacchants  because 
of  the  vicious  conviviality  of  their  habits.  They  are 
not  by  any  means  exclusively  wandering  teachers  seek- 
ing casual  jobs  at  teaching  and  living  off  the  country 
meanwhile,  but  lusty  young  fellows  of  coarsely  rois- 
tering manners,  who  occasionally  do  some  teaching 
between  times,  while  visiting  the  schools  of  cities  that 
offer  abundant  though  coarse  means  of  living  to  stu- 
dents. 

They  are  attended  by  a  number  of  wretched  lads 
calley  *'  A.  B.  C.  shooters  ",  whose  studies  they  nom- 
inally direct,  but  who  are  really  their  fags  begging  and 
even  stealing  for  their  brutal  masters,  and  learning 
so  little  that  one  of  them,  Thomas  Platter,  who  after- 
wards gained  distinction,  tells  us  that  after  nine  years 
as  an  A.  B.  C.  shooter,  when  he  came  into  a  school 
at  Zurich,  **  1  knew  nothing,  nor  could  I  even  read 
Donatus,  and  yet  I  was  eighteen  years  of  age;  and  I 
sat  there  like  a  hen  among  chickens.''*  If  the  ped- 
agogical efforts  of  the  Bacchants  when  they  were 
engaged  as  teachers  were  of  the  same  character  as  their 
dealings  with  their  fags.  Platter's  account  gives  us  a 
lively  picture  of  the  character  and  success  of  the  most 
numerous  class  of  elementary  teachers.  After  the 
end  of  the  15th  century,  nothing  of  this  discreditable 
class  survives  but  their  name,  which  continued  to  be 
given  to  the  new-comers  in  the  German  universities. 

Whilst  England  does  not  seem  to  have  been  infested 
with  these  vagrant  teachers,  it  is  evident  from  a  com- 

•  Von  Rnumer,  Op.  Cit.  Vol.  1,  p.  335,  which  is  translated  in  Barnard's 
American  Journal,  Vol,  6,  pp.  79-90;  and  ibid  p.  603  is  another  account  of 
the  Bacchants. 


172 


CLOSE   OF   MEDIEVAL   EDUCAFION 


plaint  made  by  Roger  Ascham  in  the  16th  century  that 
no  greater  care  was  there  exercised  in  the  choice  of 
teachers.  "It  is  pity,"  he  says,  *'  that  commonly 
more  care  is  had,  yea  and  that  amongst  very  wise  men, 
to  find  out  a  cunning  man  for  their  horse,  than  a  cun- 
ning man  for  their  children.  They  say  nay  in  word 
but  they  do  so  in  deed.  For  the  one  they  will  gladly 
give  a  stipend  of  two  hundred  crowns  by  the  year, 
and  loth  to  offer  to  the  other  two  hundred  shillings. 
God  that  sitteth  in  heaven  laugheth  their  choice  to 
scorn,  and  rewardeth  their  liberality  as  it  should;  for 
he  suffereth  them  to  have  tame  and  well-ordered  horses, 
but  wild  and  unfortunate  children."* 

As  would  naturally  be  expected,  the  discipline  in 
the  schools  was  everywhere  severe  and  barbarous.  The 
brutal  treatment  of  the  fags  by  the  Bacchants  is  de- 
picted by  Platter.  Erasmus  inveighs  bitterly  against 
the  barbarity  current  in  the  schools  of  his  day  as  de- 
feating its  object  by  creating  a  dislike  for  study,  and 
he  gives  an  example  of  it  in  his  own  case.  More  than 
a  generation  later  Ascham  testifies  to  the  same  effect 
that  before  he  was  fourteen  years  old  *'  a  fond  school- 
master drave  him  so  with  fear  of  beating  from  all  love 
of  learning  "  that  he  felt  its  effects  even  in  his  mature 
years.  Compayr^  says:  **  the  whip  was  in  fashion  in 
the  15th  as  in  the  14th  century.  There  was  no  other 
ilifference,  says  a  historian,  save  that  the  whips  of  the 
15th  century  were  twice  as  long  as  in  the  14th." 
What  better  could  be  looked  for  in  the  lower  schools 
when  the  University  of  Paris  still  resorted  to  the  rod 
even  with  its  bachelors.     The  English  practice  in  the 

♦The  Schoolmaster,  Arber's  edition,  p.  83. 


CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT 


173 


treatment  of  pupils,  and  the  punishments  commonly 
resorted  to,  are  quaintly  illustrated  in  the  following 
old  English  rhyme: 

**  For  all  their  noble  bloode. 
He  plucks  them  by  the  hood 
And  shakes  them  by  the  eare. 
And  bryngs  them  in  such  feare : 
He  bayteth  them  lyke  a  beare. 
Like  an  ox  or  a  bul. 
Their  wittes  he  sayth  are  dul: 
He  sayth  they  have  no  brayne 
Their  estate  to  maintain: 
And  make  to  bowe  the  knee 
Before  his  Majestic."* 

Such  then  were  the  schools  and  school-masters  of 
the  last  four  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages;  such  were 
the  narrow  limits  of  their  influence;  such  their  studies 
their  methods,  and  their  discipline.  It  is  not  diflBcult 
however  to  see  that  there  has  been  a  perceptible  ad- 
vance over  the  two  preceding  centuries,  at  least  in  the 
numbers  of  those  who  receive  some  kind  of  schooling 
and  in  the  facility  of  finding  some  kind  of  teachers. 
The  instruction  is  no  longer  so  largely  confined  to 
mere  dogma;  in  the  schools  of  the  cities  the  studies 
are  made  to  bear  upon  a  better  preparation  for  active 
life;  the  parish  schools  have  evidently  become  more 
numerous,  evincing  greater  earnestness  in  the  religious 
training  of  the  young;  and  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that,  bad  as  a  large  part  of  the  teachers  may  have  been 
they  were  no  worse  morally  than  in  the  10th  and  11th 

♦  Education  in  Early  England,  p.  7,  in  publications  of  the  early  Eng- 
lish Text  Soe.. 


174 


CLOSE   OF   MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION" 


centuries,  and  were  considerably  more  learned  as  well 
as  numerous. 

Xor  in  this  connection  should  be  overlooked  the 
humble  yet  devoted  and  meritorious  services  of  many 
men  of  the  new  religious  orders,  and  of  some  teachers 
of  this  period  who  were  of  a  high  type;  like  Guarino 
(+  1460)  and  Vittorino  da  Feltre  (+1446),  both  of 
whom  were  famous  as  teachers  and  became  tutors  of 
princes;  both  of  whom  distinguished  themselves  by 
zeal  for  better  literature  in  instruction,  and  by  their 
rejection  of  the  prevailing  scholastic  methods  as  tend- 
ing "  to  make  boys  twice  as  ignorant  and  silly  "  as 
they  had  been  before;  whilst  Guarinc  also  inspired  by 
his  teaching  at  least  five  English  scholars  who  later 
rose  to  distinction.* 

Likewise  the  '*  gentle  Gerson  "  ought  not  to  be  for- 
gotten as  a  promoter  of  the  education  of  the  masses, 
who,  rising  from  a  humble  station  to  be  chancellor  of 
the  University  of  Paris,  distinguished  himself  in  his 
high  station  by  ''  his  sympathy  for  the  disinherited 
ones  of  this  world  '\  and  by  writing  small  elementary 
treatises  for  the  common  people  in  their  mother 
tongue,  t 

If  now  we  add  to  this  the  work  of  the  universities, 
about  fifty  in  number,  that  were  established  during 
these  four  centuries,  and  consider  the  great  numbers 
of  men  that  they  reached  and  the  wide  extent  of  their 
influence,  it  will  easily  be  seen  how  vast  has  been  the 
educational  progress  made  in  this  period. 

It  is  well  for  us  thus  to  take  considerate  account  of 


J 


*  Lyte,  History  of  Oxford  University.    C.  XIV.  p.  393. 
tCompayr6,  p.  76. 


THE   RENAI88AKCE 


175 


the  state  of  education  at  this  time,  for  with  the  close 
of  the  15th  century  we  reach  the  end  of  the  old  order 
of  things,  and  approach  the  era  of  that  tremendous 
intellectual  as  well  as  religious  revolution  called  the 
Great  Renaissance,  whose  inciting  causes  we  have  al- 
ready observed  in  the  invention  of  printing,  render- 
ing intellectual  intercourse  easier,  and  in  the  revival 
of  interest  in  classical  literature;  to  which  may  be 
added  a  profound  religious  unrest,  and  an  intellectual 
expectancy  springing  from  great  geographical  dis- 
coveries. 

Nor  were  the  conditions  lacking  which  would  favor 
a  swift  advance  in  education  as  well  as  civilization. 
For,  during  the  period  that  was  ending,  the  political 
administration  of  most  of  the  European  states  had 
assumed  a  more  settled  form  with  the  decline  of  feud- 
alism and  the  consequent  strengthening  of  the  powers 
of  the  central  governments,  thus  assuring  that  measure 
of  order  and  legal  security  so  essential  to  the  progress 
of  learning;  to  which  was  added  the  need  that  began 
to  be  felt  in  the  diplomatic  intercourse  of  states  of  a 
kind  of  knowledge  hitherto  neglected,  which  urgently 
prompted  men  to  new  forms  of  culture  and  became  a 
powerful  influence  for  enlightenment.* 

Thus  with  these  powerful  incitements  to  a  new  and 
better  learning  and  under  such  more  favorable  condi- 
tions for  its  cultivation  the  Middle  Ages  ended  and 
the  new  era  was  ushered  in. 

•Guizot,  History  of  Civilization  in  Europe,  Lecture  XI. 


I  X  D  E  X 

A  8tar78hows  that  portrait  or  illustration  is  given; 
q.  indicates  quotation. 

ABC  shooters 171 

Abdarrahman 28 

Abelard,  Peter 81*,  88,  120 

academic  art  of  spinning 158 

adventure,  love  of 108 

Advertissemens  au  Roy 159 

JElbert 60 

Agricola,  Rudolph 168 

Aix-la-chapelle , 74 

Alcuin 63,  74-86 

Alexandria 36,  45,  47,  57 

algebra 27 

Alfred  the  Great 61,  62,  69*,  88,  89-90,  106,  119 

Ambrose,  St 52,  57,  75*,  95 

Anna  Comnena 34 

anti-monastic  feeling 116 

antiquity  of  universities 132 

Anwykyll,  q 49 

Apostolic  Constitutions 47 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomas 75* 

Summa  of 136 

Arabic  education 39 

literature 29 

figures 95 

(177) 


» 


178 


HISTORY   OF  MEDIJEVAL  EDUCATION 


Arabic  poetry 29 

Arabs 28 

architecture 95 

Arezzo 29 

Aristotle 26,  35,  36,  69*,  87,  136,  142 

arithmetic 54,  57,  60,  68,  105,  163 

art....: 109 

arts 26,  118,  135 

ascetic  spirit 100 

Ascham,  Roger 165*,  172 

Asser 89 

astrology 27 

astronomy 26,  27,  33,  46,  60,  85 

Athens 40 

schools  of 120 

Augustine,  St 48,  75* 

'Avicenna 139 

Bacchants 170,  171,  172 

Bacon,  Roger  81*,  133,  139 

q 162,  163 

Bgeda  (see  Bede) 54 

Bagdad 28 

Bangui!,  letter  to 63-67 

Bardos 33 

Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education 113, 

...150,  168,  171 

Basil,  St 52 

Bede  Venerable 54,  59,  61,  81* 

History 90 

Benedict,  St 56 

Benedictine  monasteries 57,  91,  163 

monks 149 


INDEX 


179 


4 


Berlin 133 

Bernard,  St 75* 

Bible 21,  46,  47,  48,  59,  60,  64,  136,  139,  167 

interpretation  of 46 

translation 55 

Boethius 54,  140 

Consolations 90 

Bokhara 28 

Bologna 106,  115,  118,  119,  120,  121,  122,  124, 

125,  126,  129,  130,  132,  152,  156 

books 158 

Bursche 152 

burses 151 

Byzantines 24,  33-38 

architecture 109 

art 109 

barrenness  of 34 

education 40 

learning 33 

Cabus,  Book  of 30 

Cambridge 106,  119,  121,  140,  146 

carving 95 

Cassell's  England,  q 101 

castle  schools 99,  100 

Catechetic  school 45,  57,  83 

Catechumenate 45 

cathedral  schools 56,  57,  58,  86,  119,  162 

Catholic  church 23,58,111 

Chaldean  lore 52 

chapter  schools 164 

Charlemagne 20,  28,  55,  58,  59,  62,  65*,  88, 

89,  99,  106, 119,  127 


180 


HISTORY    OF    MEDIAEVAL   EDUCATION 


Charlemagne,  helpers 73-90 

himself   a  student 68 

zeal  for  learning 71 

^    Charles  the  Bald 73,  87 

chemistry  27 

chess 100 

children 43 

Christ,  teaching  of 19,41 

Christian  education 39-90 

ideal 103,104 

school  s 124 

Christianity 36 

growth  of 19,  20 

truest  expression  of 41 

Christians 18,  21 

chivalric  education 103 

chivalry 95-104,  107 

Chrodegang,  of  Metz 58 

Chrysostom 47,  48 

church,  power  of 1 54 

Cicero 1 40 

cipher 95 

city  schools 163 

civic  knowledge 107 

civil   law 118 

civilization 98 

classic  authors 57 

literature 159 

classicism  160 

Clemens  of  Alexandria 46 

Clement 85 

clergy 63,  67,  106 


INDEX 


181 


clerical  control 17,  124,  125,  132 

cloister 47,  163 

Colet,  John 81* 

college  servants 122 

collisions  with  local  authority 130 

Cologne 133 

commencement 149 

companionship  of  nations 109 

Compayr^,  q 113,  162,  172,  174 

compulsory  education 71 

Constan  tine 115 

of  Carthage 27 

Constantinople,  culture 34 

Royal  College 33 

constitution  of  universities 117 

copying 21,  34,  78 

Cordova 28 

corporal  punishment 30,  93,  94,  152 

courtesy 98,  107 

crusades 103,  108-110,  154 

Cubberley,  q 15,  49,  91,  127,  138 

culture 22,  26,  44,  51,  58,  110,  145 

Arabic 29 

literary 99 

non-professional 118 

studies 135 

currents  of  educational  activity 23,  25*,  39 

customs  of  the  towns 107 

Cyprian 48 

Damascus 28 

Daniel 52 

Danish  invasions 90 


182 


HISTORY    OF   MEDIAEVAL   EDUCATION 


INDEX 


183 


Dance 29 

Dark  ages 18,  23 

darkest  ages 88 

decimal  notation 27 

degrees 131,  134 

cost  of 149 

democracy 108 

democratic  education 71 

Demosthenes 36 

Denifl^,  q...ll3,  119,  126,  129,  130,  132,  135,  136,  157 

development  of  individuality 103 

Deutsch,  q 29 

Deventer,  brethren  of 164,  168,  169 

dialectics 41,  46,  88,  135,  136,  144 

dictation 141,  142,  158,  168 

Diophantus 27 

direction 118 

discipline  of  the  mediaeval  universities 134 

disorders  and  riots 125 

disputations 139,  140,  143,  160 

Dittes,  q 163 

dogma 97 

Dolensis,  Alex 55 

domestic  training 43,  45,  59 

Dominicans 169 

Don  Quixote 97 

Dunstan 90 

ecclesiastical  authority 118,  119,  123,  130 

Education  in  Early  England,  q 144,  173 

educational  history 55 

Eginhard 68,  74 

q 20 


A 


elementary  schools 164 

embroidery ^^ 

encyclopsedia 54,  55 

England  59,  60,  62,  105,  162 

episcopal  schools .57,  58,  93,  124 

Erasmus 165*,  168,  172 

Erfurt ••93,  i:>3 

ethics 46,  136 

Eton 1^3 

Euclid 27,69* 

E uropean  type 1^^ 

externs 


56 


,98 


extravagance 

faculties 11^»  1^1 

feudal  system 22,  154,  1T5 

First  Renaissance 86,  89 

revival  of  learning 93 

Fontenelle ^^ 

France 104,  163 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St 75* 

Franciscans 1^9 

freedom  of  study 1^3,  134 

of  teaching l'^^^ 

of  travel ^53,  154 

French  universities 1^9 

vernacular 73 

Freundgen '^^ 

Fulda 55,  72,  80,  87 

Galen 27,  69*,  114,  139 

Gall,  St 72,163 

Gaul 17,  18,  29 

^  geography 105,  153 


184 


HISTORY    OF   MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION 


geometry 33,  46,  54 

Gerard  of  Zutphen 167 

Gerbert 29,  95,  110,  111 

German  grammar 72 

songs 72 

universities 133,  151,  160 

vernacular 72,  73 

Germanic  independence 103,  104 

Germany 104,  105,  162,  163 

Gersen 174 

Gibbon 35,  110,  114 

q 28 


God 


31,  41 


Goliards 170 

good  faith 98 

grammar 33,  46,  56,  60,  78,  80,  94,  135 

schools 163,  169 

Great  Renaissance 145,  175 

Grecian  intel lect 37 

Greek  culture 40,  45 

language 80,  85 

learning ...33,  40 

literature 27,  28,  33,  34,  40,  52,  57,  59,  160 

science 26,34 

Green,  q 55,  61 

Gregory  the  Great 59 

Grimbald 89 

Groot,  Gerhard 164 

Guarino I74. 

Guibert  de  Xogent 94,  100,  155 

guilds  of  trades 107,  108,  117,  126 


INDEX 


185 


Guizot,  q 18'  4*^' 

51,  55,  60,  63,  77,  80,  83,  84,  94,  97,  104,  175 

gunpowder ^  * 

hair-splitting 1^8,  160 

Hallam,  q 35,  59,  88,  89,  90,  93,  105,  106,  116,  157 

Haroun  al  Raschid '^^ 

heathen  literature ^^i  ^^ 

schools 46,48 

heathenism ^^ 

Hebrews '^^'  ^^^^  ^^ 

Heidelberg ^^^^  ^^^ 

helpless,  regard  for ^^^ 

hermits **^ 

hierarchy "^ 

Hieronymians ^"  * 

Hincmar,  Bishop ^^ 

"^Hippocrates 27,  69*,  114,  139 

Histoire  Generale,  q "^'^^  ^^ 

history ^^^ 

Home; 36,  52,  99 

Huber,  q ^^^ 

humanitarian  ideal ^^^  '^^^  1^^ 

Ibn   Tophail ^0-32 

ideal,  humanitarian  4:^?  ^4,  103 

of  Christian   education 40 

ideals 36 

ignorance,  causes  of '^^ 

j^eneral ^^^  ^3 

r  •  1 49 

inception ^^^ 

independent  honor ^^3 

thought ^"^^ 

indi vidual,  development  of ^4: 


186 


HISTORY    OF   MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION 


IXDEX 


187 


individualitv 

development  of 

industries 

influence  of  universities... 
initiation  into  knighthood. 

in  practica 

inspection 

intellectual   activity 

awakeninsr 


59, 


.17,  29, 


interior  of  Xorman  school 

interns 

invention  of  printing 

Ireland 

Irnerius 

Isidore  of  Seville 

isolation 

Italian  schools 

Italy 

Jarrow   sciiooi..  

Jerome,  St 

jurisprudence 

justice 

Justinian 

knights 

Koran 

labor         

Liicroix,  q 

Latin 52,  59,  68,  93, 

barbarous 

degenerate 

literature  

schools 


...60, 


40,  42 

103 

105,  107 

153 

101* 

140 

71 

106 

110 

147* 

56 

157 

60,  61,  74,  87 

120 

...54,  55,  57 
22,  109,  154 

115 

142,  160,  163 

.54,  60 

...48,  75* 

114,  115,  135 

98 

...40,  139 

103 

26 

56 

127 

105,  136,  164 

93 

59 

.57,  59 
105 


II 


!         :     if 


a 


Latin  vs.  vernacular. 


22 


......58,  72,  90,  97,  105,  111,  112,  122,  136,  160 

Laurie,  q...56,  57,  93,  107,  108,  113,  114-118,  120,  1.32 

^^^ 59,  115,  117,  138*,  139 

Bologna -j^g 

Montpellier j^o 

Oxford 117^  118**140 

Paris jjg 

lawlessness ,^.o 

learning  by  teaching  j^g 

lecture  on  civil  law jqo:^^ 

Leidrade \^ 

Leipsic 

Leo    of  Thessalonica 

Leonardo  of  Pisa 

liberal  arts q^    ^.^ 

,.,       ,.  oh,  117 

liberality ^g 

liberty,  religion,  honor '  ..7.'  96 

libraries -ili/^ 

Medici J... 


106. 


133 
..33 

81* 


Pari: 


140 


licencia  docendi 123,131,156 

linen  paper ,.y 

literary  culture qa 

--^^''^ '.  .'.'.'.'.'.■  ■.".■.■.■.■.■.■.■.  .■.■.■;.■;.  .■.■.107 

'■'"^'"^ 21,30,48,59,135 

heathen -o    p., 

,     .  4o,  51 

l^^V         26,  iw 

J'°°!^<''^,    - 105,144,155 

L.0U1S  the  Debonnaire 

Low  cou  ntries 

loyalty 


86 

162,  164 
98 


186 


HISTORY   OF   MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION 


INDEX 


187 


individuality 40   42 

development  of IO3 

industries IO5,  107 

influence  of  universities 153 

initiation  into  knighthood loi* 

in  practica 14(j 

inspection 71 

intellectual   activity lOG 

awakening no 

interior  of  Norman  school 147* 

interns 55 

invention  of  printing 157 

Ireland 59,  60,  Gl,  74,  87 

Irneri  us 120 

Isidore  of  Seville 54^  55^  57 

isolation 22,  109,  154 

Italian  schools II5 

Italy 17,  29,  142,  IGO,  163 

Jarrow  school 54   GO 

Jerome,  St 4g   75* 

jurisprudence GO,  114,  115,  135 

justice 9g 

Justinian 40,  139 

knights 103 

Koran 26 

labor 56 

Lacroi x,  q 127 

Latin 52,  59,  68,  93,  105,  136,  164 

barbarous 93 

degenerate 59 

literature  57,  59 

schools 105 


1 


Latin  vs.  vernacular '^'^ 

......58,  72,  90,  97,  105,  111,  112,  122,  136,  160 

Laurie,  q...56,  57,  93,  107,  108,  113,  114-118,  120,  132 

law 59,  115,  117,  138*,  139 

Bologna ^^^ 

Montpellier ^^^ 

Oxford 117,  118,  140 

Paris 11^ 

lawlessness 1^*^ 

learning  by  teaching 1^^ 

lecture  on  civil  law 1'^° 

Leidrade '  ^ 

Leipsic 1^^'  1^^ 

Leo    of  Thessalonica ^^ 

Leonardo  of  Pisa ^1* 

liberal  arts w^  xn 

liberality ^^ 

liberty,  religion,  honor ^^ 

libraries 1"^^ 

Medici 1'*! 

Paris 1^0 

licencia  docendi l^'^?  1^1'  1^^ 

linen  paper 1^ ' 

96 

107 


literary  culture 
taste 


literature ^1,  30,  48,  59,  135 

heathen ^^'  ^1 

logic ^6'  1^^ 

London 105,  144,  155 

Louis  the  Debonnaire ^^ 

Low  countries l^'^'  1^* 

loyalty ^^ 


188 


HISTORY    OF   MEDIJIVAL   EDUCATIOX 


Lucan 14q 

Luther 1,;4^  1,15* 

Lyte,  q 113,  119,  121,  130,  139,  149,  174 

Macaulay,  q 23 

Magnus  Aurelius  Cassiodorus. .  ...54 

man,  end  of 51 

manuscripts n,  34,  50,  78 

illumination  of 95 

marriage 41 

-  Martianus  Capella 5:5,  54,  So 

-Martin  de  Tours,  St :<5,  80,  84,  85 

^mathematics ...27 

medicTval  system  summarized...  14* 

school 49* 

Medici  library 141 

^medicine 26,  ^:.  114,  115,  117,  118,  135,  139 

Grecian   sources 114 

Montpellier.  US 

Salernum Hg 

Melanch  thon 164,  165* 

memorizing 15g 

Menander 34 

metaphysics 35 

methods  at  media?val  universities ....134 

of   instruction 141 

Middle  Ages is,  39,  56,  88,  114 

Minnesingers 99 

miracles 5I 

monasteries 43,   47,  86,  90,  116 

Benedictine 57,  91,  163 

English 90 

monastic  restrictions 124 


INDEX 


189 


I 


monastic  schools 06,  127,  135,  162 

Mohammed-ibn-Mousa  27 

Mohammedans 26,  28,  39 

schools Ill 

monotheism  39 

Montpellier 118,  133,  140 

Moors  29 

morals 151 

150 

46,  52 

28 


at  universities. 


Moses 

Moslems 

Mt.  Athos 33 

Mullinger,  q 47, 

59,  63,  6S,  80,  88,  119,  120,  139,  14C,  149 

municipal  schools 164 

municipalities,  growth  of 104-108 

Roman 104 

music 54,  57,  58,  68,  95,  100 

church 52 

mythology -^8 

national  culture 123 

nationalism,  spirit   of.-. 104 

nations 122,124,  129 

natural  history 60 

ninth  century 62-90 

noster  magister 1-^^ 

oaths  of  chivalry 97 

optics 26 

Origen 46,  69*,  77 

origin  of  universities 119 

Orleans 93,  104 

outer  monastic  school 127* 


190 


HISTORY    OF    MEDIJEVAL    EDUCATION 


Ovid 99,   140 

Oxford 00,  106,   119,  121,  133,  136,  146,  150,  151 

painting 95 

papyrus ^^ 

Palace  school ..79,80 

Pantanus ...45 

parchment ^^ 

Paris.. ..93,  116,  118,  119,  120,  1-21,  122,  124,  126, 

129,  133,  136,  150,  151,  152,  156,  162,  172,  174 

library ^^^ 

students •  ^^^ 

Paulsen,  q ^^^ 

penmanship ....9o 

Pepin ^^ 

Peter  the  Lombard  1-^^ 

29,  81*,  160 

120 

26,  33,  46,  54,  109,  120,  136 


Petrarch 

philosophers, 
philosophy... 


Cambridge. 

Oxford 

Paris 


118 

118 

120 

33 

100 

.52,  87 
..165*    171 


Photius 

physical  education  

Plato 

Platter,  Thomas  

poetry -^6,  54,  60,  100,  109 

chivalric 99 

poverty  of  the  universities.  130 

Prague 1^^»  ^^^ 

preparatory  schools 1*^1 

printing ^"^ 

privileges  and  immunities  of  the  university... 122,  134 


INDEX  191 

proselyting 39 

protection 110 

Ptolemy 27 

Quadrivium 15,  53,  57^  53^  93^  ^35 

Rabanus  Maurus 55,  57,  68,  72,  84,  87 

Radewin,  Fiorentius 157 

Ramus 1^9 

^^^dal^  q Ill,  113,  135 

^^^^i°g 57,  105,  163 

reason  above  force 154 

"se  of ['^.Z'.in 

refinement go 

Reichenau 57^  gg   gQ 

^^^^^on 17^  32^  97 

religious  controversies 33 

doctrines 32 

fanaticism iQg 

teaching 1^4 

revival  of  learning ^2 

^h^i^s 93*"95 

^^^^riC 46^    QQ     gQ 

Roman  civil  law n^ 

education 43 

literature 1^ 

^^^ 17,  19,36,93 

Rousseau 30^  32 

Salamanca 29 

Salernum 27,  115,  118 

Saracenic  culture 44    109 

schools 110-112,'  114 

Saracens 24-28,  29,  111 

sarcophagus  of  literature 37 


192 


HISTORY    OF   MEDIEVAL   EDUCATION 


Savigny,  q 120,  123 

Schlegel,   q 36 

Schmidt,  q 26,  29, 

30,  47,  54,  56,  59,  67,  72,  100,  131,  132,  141 

scholastic  education 100 

method 88,  144,  145 

renaissance 106 

scholasticism 26,  105,  144,  160 

school  buildings 169 

of  mendicant  monks 91* 

of  the  Palace 79,  80 

sciences 26,29,  59,  135,  136 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,    q 34,  157 

-Scotus  Erigena 61,  87,  120 

Scriptures.     See  Bible. 

self-government 118,    134,  156 

-seeking 98 

Servatus,  Lupus 87 

Seville 29 

skepticism 116,    156 

Socrates 36,  80,  81*   84 

Solomon 30 

sophists 120,  144 

Sophocles 36 

Spain 17,  26,  28,  110,  114 

Specht,  q 56,  59,  164,  170 

specialization 114,  117     ^ 

of  studies,  charters 119    f 

spelling 78 

spirit  of  honor 97 

state,  ed ucation  for 42 

steadfastness 98 


INDEX  195 

women  as  teachers 47 

education  of 59 

respect  for 98 

writing 57,  105,  163 

schools 105,  164 

York  school 60,  74 


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